African Voices Summer 2017 AV Summer 2017 Digital Issue | Page 9

Ars Poetica on Being a Black Poet from Memphis
I am a poet, black like the color of the Wolf River,
and I talk slow but my mind is sharper than the crease
my daddy swears every pants must wear.
Poetry is Memphis blue nights
and saying man like it rhymes with rain
it’s watching black men kamakazee into the air
hearing the congo rang out on the river of people dancing.
Poetry is knowing black bodies were sold up from the Mississippi
on Auction Avenue and you can still hear the voices at night.
Poetry is watching my niece graduate from Central High
watching ebony-faced young people glaze across the graduation stage.
Poetry is freeing your tongue. It’s writing in the southern patois of your grandmamma
her honeysuckle proverbs. It’s knowing that everything black southern folk do is poetry.
© 2017 Roman Johnson
african Voices
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