| |
| |
Foreword | |
| |
| |
Introduction | |
| |
| |
| |
Invocation | |
| |
| |
We Have Been Believers | |
| |
| |
| |
A Poet Is Not a Juke Box | |
| |
| |
| |
Nommo | |
| |
| |
| |
No Jive | |
| |
| |
| |
failure of an invention | |
| |
| |
| |
Building | |
| |
| |
| |
The Disdirected | |
| |
| |
| |
Blood I Say, Study Our Story, Sing This Song | |
| |
| |
The Way We Move | |
| |
| |
| |
... And the Saga Continues | |
| |
| |
| |
Bad Times | |
| |
| |
| |
How to Do | |
| |
| |
| |
Like a Dog | |
| |
| |
| |
Lonely Women | |
| |
| |
| |
On the Other Side | |
| |
| |
| |
N | |
| |
| |
| |
Her Scream Has Been Stolen | |
| |
| |
| |
Crater Face | |
| |
| |
| |
susu | |
| |
| |
| |
An Asian Am Anthem | |
| |
| |
| |
Scout | |
| |
| |
| |
This Old Man | |
| |
| |
| |
Afternoon Train | |
| |
| |
| |
Beginning at the End: Capital/Capitol Punishment | |
| |
| |
| |
Open Your Mouth--and Smile | |
| |
| |
A Chinese Man in Smyma | |
| |
| |
| |
450 Years of Selective Memory (Smile) | |
| |
| |
| |
the n-word | |
| |
| |
| |
an open letter to the entertainment industry | |
| |
| |
| |
Metropolitan Metaphysics | |
| |
| |
| |
America Eats Its Young | |
| |
| |
| |
laughin at cha | |
| |
| |
| |
Rosa's Beauty | |
| |
| |
| |
Overworked | |
| |
| |
| |
Nintendo | |
| |
| |
| |
Stealth-Pirates of Cyberia | |
| |
| |
| |
The Death of Poetry | |
| |
| |
| |
Last Visit to Chestnut Middle School | |
| |
| |
| |
Learning to Drive at 32 | |
| |
| |
| |
Mr. BOOM BOOM Man | |
| |
| |
| |
Road to the Presidency | |
| |
| |
| |
For What It's Worth | |
| |
| |
| |
Every Word Must Conjure | |
| |
| |
It's Called Kings | |
| |
| |
| |
Billy | |
| |
| |
| |
To Become Unconscious | |
| |
| |
| |
Letter to an Unconceived Son | |
| |
| |
| |
The Usual Suspects | |
| |
| |
| |
Blooming Death ... Blossoms | |
| |
| |
| |
What the Oracle Said | |
| |
| |
| |
The U.S.A. Court of No Appeal | |
| |
| |
| |
on the state-sanctioned murder of shaka sankofa | |
| |
| |
| |
An Epistle to the Revolutionary Bible | |
| |
| |
| |
Warrior Womb | |
| |
| |
| |
Cowboynomics | |
| |
| |
| |
Demockery | |
| |
| |
| |
Executive Privilege | |
| |
| |
| |
Question | |
| |
| |
| |
georgia avenue, washington d.c. | |
| |
| |
| |
A Palace of Mourners | |
| |
| |
| |
Palestine | |
| |
| |
| |
The Road from Khartoum | |
| |
| |
| |
A Modern Love Poem | |
| |
| |
| |
In Praise of the Seattle Coalition | |
| |
| |
| |
Blood Is the Argument | |
| |
| |
| |
Drums Drown Out the Sorrow | |
| |
| |
Amadou Diallo from Guinea to the Bronx Dead on Arrival | |
| |
| |
| |
Another Scream | |
| |
| |
| |
A Well-Bred Woman | |
| |
| |
| |
Amadou | |
| |
| |
| |
BLS | |
| |
| |
| |
after diana died | |
| |
| |
| |
Dudley Randall (1914-2000) | |
| |
| |
| |
Hoodoo Whisper | |
| |
| |
| |
Sammy Davis, Jr. | |
| |
| |
| |
Glad All Over | |
| |
| |
| |
Dancing after Sanchez | |
| |
| |
| |
The 13th Letter | |
| |
| |
| |
In Black Churches | |
| |
| |
| |
For Gwendolyn Brooks | |
| |
| |
| |
tonal embryology | |
| |
| |
Zizwe | |
| |
| |
| |
All, Bomaye | |
| |
| |
| |
Phyllis | |
| |
| |
| |
Timbalero | |
| |
| |
| |
Puente | |
| |
| |
| |
Somalia | |
| |
| |
| |
epitaph for Etheridge Knight | |
| |
| |
| |
Farewell Queen Mother Moore | |
| |
| |
| |
Palenque Queen by Habana's Shores | |
| |
| |
| |
When the Definition of Madness Is Love | |
| |
| |
January Hangover | |
| |
| |
| |
the hardest part about love | |
| |
| |
| |
Lies We Tell Ourselves | |
| |
| |
| |
8 ways of looking at pussy | |
| |
| |
| |
Temporary Insanity | |
| |
| |
| |
alone in belize | |
| |
| |
| |
footprints | |
| |
| |
| |
Big World Look Out | |
| |
| |
| |
Bullet Hole Man: A Love Poem | |
| |
| |
| |
Dreadlocks | |
| |
| |
| |
Roots | |
| |
| |
| |
Six Minutes Writing | |
| |
| |
| |
Diner | |
| |
| |
| |
Fullness | |
| |
| |
| |
Wet Dream | |
| |
| |
| |
foursomes | |
| |
| |
| |
Wishing You | |
| |
| |
| |
Shunning an Imperative | |
| |
| |
| |
January 8, 1996 | |
| |
| |
| |
A Poem for You | |
| |
| |
| |
Throbs for the Instructress | |
| |
| |
| |
At the Frenchman's | |
| |
| |
| |
Mata Hari Blues or Why I Will Never Be a Spy | |
| |
| |
| |
Yellah | |
| |
| |
| |
Extremes Ain't My Thing As Salaam Alaikum | |
| |
| |
| |
13 | |
| |
| |
| |
rock candy | |
| |
| |
| |
Love Jam | |
| |
| |
| |
Cocaine Mad-Scream Article #33 LoveSong | |
| |
| |
| |
We Whose Fathers Are Hidden | |
| |
| |
The Elders Are Gods | |
| |
| |
| |
What the Dead Do | |
| |
| |
| |
creation is a cycle | |
| |
| |
| |
Birth | |
| |
| |
| |
Daughter-to-Father Talk | |
| |
| |
| |
Tattooing the Motherline | |
| |
| |
| |
Our Fathers | |
| |
| |
| |
Mama's Magic | |
| |
| |
| |
Father's Day | |
| |
| |
| |
Momma in Red | |
| |
| |
| |
Wildlife | |
| |
| |
| |
Chicago on the Day Brother Increases His Chances of Reaching Age 21 | |
| |
| |
| |
Lest We Forget | |
| |
| |
| |
The African Burial Ground Called Tribeca | |
| |
| |
| |
fatherless townships | |
| |
| |
| |
Waiting for the Results of a Pregnancy Test | |
| |
| |
| |
Sitting in the Doctor's Office the Next Day | |
| |
| |
| |
Circa | |
| |
| |
| |
Seed of Resistance | |
| |
| |
Cooking | |
| |
| |
| |
Ben Hur | |
| |
| |
| |
in 5th grade | |
| |
| |
| |
Complected | |
| |
| |
| |
Broken Ends Broken Promises | |
| |
| |
| |
My Name's Not Rodriguez | |
| |
| |
| |
Water from the Well | |
| |
| |
| |
The Tragic Mulatto Is Neither | |
| |
| |
| |
Beauty Is Moving Us Forward | |
| |
| |
I'm Sayin Though | |
| |
| |
| |
beauty rituals 2000 | |
| |
| |
| |
Medusa | |
| |
| |
| |
Stariette | |
| |
| |
| |
exceptions | |
| |
| |
| |
What the deal, son? | |
| |
| |
| |
Plain Ole Brother Blues | |
| |
| |
| |
Why I Be a Goddess | |
| |
| |
| |
I'm the Man | |
| |
| |
| |
Dare to Be Different | |
| |
| |
| |
Thoughts from a Bar Stool | |
| |
| |
| |
A Blue Black Pearl | |
| |
| |
| |
runnin | |
| |
| |
| |
conversations in the struggle | |
| |
| |
| |
Harvest: A Line Drawing | |
| |
| |
| |
joseph speaks to gericault in the studio | |
| |
| |
| |
Entrancielo | |
| |
| |
| |
New York Seizures | |
| |
| |
| |
Hey Yo / Yo Soy! | |
| |
| |
| |
Flying over America | |
| |
| |
| |
It Was the Music That Made Us | |
| |
| |
I'm a Hip Hop Cheerleader | |
| |
| |
| |
kill the dj | |
| |
| |
| |
Ms. Cousins' Rap | |
| |
| |
| |
all up in there | |
| |
| |
| |
Doin' | |
| |
| |
| |
The Trash Talker | |
| |
| |
| |
Owed to Eminem | |
| |
| |
| |
A Psychoalphadiscobetabioaquadoloop | |
| |
| |
| |
rapid transit | |
| |
| |
| |
hold it steady | |
| |
| |
| |
Conversation with Duke Ellington and Louis (Pops) Armstrong | |
| |
| |
| |
For Lady and Prez | |
| |
| |
| |
breath | |
| |
| |
| |
The Flow | |
| |
| |
| |
Bebop Trumpet | |
| |
| |
| |
conjugation of the verb: to blow | |
| |
| |
| |
The Creed of a Graffiti Writer | |
| |
| |
| |
Sonido Ink(quieto) | |
| |
| |
| |
because I am it's a race thing trip | |
| |
| |
| |
Grasshopper | |
| |
| |
| |
Grace | |
| |
| |
| |
The Low End | |
| |
| |
| |
rep/resent | |
| |
| |
| |
2G (Another Millennium Poem) | |
| |
| |
| |
enter(f*#@ckin)tained | |
| |
| |
| |
Children of the Word | |
| |
| |
Motherseed | |
| |
| |
| |
Wake Up, My Little Pretties | |
| |
| |
| |
nommo: how we come to speak | |
| |
| |
| |
spaNglisH | |
| |
| |
| |
New Boogaloo | |
| |
| |
| |
Mi Negrito | |
| |
| |
| |
News of the World | |
| |
| |
| |
Much of Your Poetry Is Beautiful | |
| |
| |
| |
Ginsberg | |
| |
| |
| |
In Bed with James Tate | |
| |
| |
| |
soulgroovin ditty #7 | |
| |
| |
| |
Sundays | |
| |
| |
| |
To Aretha Franklin from Sparkle | |
| |
| |
| |
Lumumba Blues | |
| |
| |
| |
All the shoes are shined and the cotton is picked | |
| |
| |
| |
In this day age | |
| |
| |
| |
The Trouble I've Seen | |
| |
| |
| |
Having Lost My Son, I Confront the Wreckage | |
| |
| |
| |
Bensonhurst | |
| |
| |
| |
For Michael Griffith, Murdered Dec. 21, 1986, Howard Beach, NY | |
| |
| |
| |
Lift Every Fist and Swing | |
| |
| |
| |
TV Dinner | |
| |
| |
| |
Bluesman | |
| |
| |
| |
We're Not Well Here | |
| |
| |
| |
Nickel Wine and Deep Kisses | |
| |
| |
| |
The Coward | |
| |
| |
| |
Strip | |
| |
| |
| |
Sex | |
| |
| |
| |
enemies | |
| |
| |
| |
American Poetry | |
| |
| |
| |
So Many Books, So Little Time | |
| |
| |
| |
How to Be a Street Poet | |
| |
| |
| |
The Adventures of Grandmaster Flash | |
| |
| |
| |
X | |
| |
| |
| |
The Tradition | |
| |
| |
| |
There It Is | |
| |
| |
| |
Contributors | |
| |
| |
Permissions | |