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"convicts rest
Like lizards on rocks."
Etheridge Knight (1933-1991), U.S. poet. Eastern guard tower (l. 2-3). . .
Treasury of American Poetry, The. Nancy Sullivan, ed. (1978) Doubleday & Company. |
"Let all Black Poets die as trumpets,
And be buried in the dust of marching feet."
Etheridge Knight (1933-1991), U.S. poet. For Black Poets Who Think of Suicide (l. 13-14). . .
Introduction to Poetry, An. X. J. Kennedy, ed. (6th ed., 1986) Little, Brown & Company. |
"Black Poets should live—not leap
From steel bridges, like the white boys do."
Etheridge Knight (1933-1991), U.S. poet. For Black Poets Who Think of Suicide (l. 1-2). . .
Introduction to Poetry, An. X. J. Kennedy, ed. (6th ed., 1986) Little, Brown & Company. |
"Hard Rock was "known not to take no shit
From nobody," and he had the scars to prove it:"
Etheridge Knight (1933-1991), U.S. poet. Hard Rock Returns to Prison from the Hospital for the Criminal Insane (l. 1-2). . .
Norton Introduction to Poetry, The. J. Paul Hunter, ed. (3d ed., 1986) W. W. Norton & Company. |
"The WORD was that Hard Rock wasn't a mean nigger
Anymore, that the doctors had bored a hole in his head,
Cut out part of his brain, and shot electricity
Through the rest."
Etheridge Knight (1933-1991), U.S. poet. Hard Rock Returns to Prison from the Hospital for the Criminal Insane (l. 7-10). . .
Norton Introduction to Poetry, The. J. Paul Hunter, ed. (3d ed., 1986) W. W. Norton & Company. |
"He sees through stone
he has the secret
eyes this old black one"
Etheridge Knight (1933-1991), U.S. poet. He Sees through Stone (l. 1-3). . .
Made Thing, The; an Anthology of Contemporary Southern Poetry. Leon Stokesbury, ed. (1987) The University of Arkansas Press. |
"Each Fall the graves of my grandfathers call me, the brown
hills and red gullies of mississippi send out their electric
messages, galvanizing my genes."
Etheridge Knight (1933-1991), U.S. poet. The Idea of Ancestry (l. 22-24). . .
Norton Introduction to Poetry, The. J. Paul Hunter, ed. (3d ed., 1986) W. W. Norton & Company. |
"This yr there is a gray stone wall damming my stream, and when
the falling leaves stir my genes, I pace my cell or flop on my bunk
and stare at 47 black faces across the space. I am all of them,
they are all of me, I am me, they are thee, and I have no sons
to float in the space between."
Etheridge Knight (1933-1991), U.S. poet. The Idea of Ancestry (l. 35-39). . .
Norton Introduction to Poetry, The. J. Paul Hunter, ed. (3d ed., 1986) W. W. Norton & Company. |
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Etheridge Knight
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