Tyehimba Jess Poems

Hit Title Date Added
1.
Hagar In The Wilderness

My God is the living God,
God of the impertinent exile.
An outcast who carved me
into an outcast carved
...

2.
Alabaster Hands

Let me tell you how
white hands kilned me
in the moonless middle
...

3.
Indian Combat

We three warriors
were called forth
to be, forever, enemies.
...

4.
Blind Boone's Vision

When I got old enough
I asked my mother,
to her surprise,
...

5.
Freedsong: Dream Song

Our Box Henry hid away.
John Berryman's Ol' Henry sulked.
I see his point—he was trying to put one over.
...

6.
martha promise receives leadbelly, 1935

when your man comes home from prison,
when he comes back like the wound
and you are the stitch,
...

7.
What Marked Tom?

Did a slave song at a master's bidding
mark Tom while asleep in Charity's womb?
The whole plantation would be called to sing
...

8.
What the Wind, Rain and Thunder Said to Tom

Hear how sky opens its maw to swallow
Earth? To claim each blade and being and rock
with its spit? Become your own full sky. Own
...

9.
General Bethune on Blind Tom

I had no idea Tom would make me rich.
Blind and crazed, like a blessed up idiot,
he'd sing bluebird songs in perfect pitch,
...

10.
Blind Tom plays on…

Who am I to deny this world? This gift
of music storming through me? It howls out
my fingers when I reach into God's mouth
...

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