—And when you have forgotten the b… And most especially when you have… When you have forgotten Sunday ha… Or me sitting on the front-room ra… Looking off down the long street

The good man. He is still enhancer, renouncer. In the time of detachment, in the time of the vivid heather a… in the time of oral

Mayor. Worldman. Historyman. Beyond steps that occur and close, your steps are echo-makers. You can never be forgotten. We begin our health.

He was born in Alabama. He was bred in Illinois. He was nothing but a Plain black boy. Swing low swing low sweet sweet ch…

I put my seed into the ground And said, 'I’ll watch it grow.’ I watered it and cared for it As well as I could know. One day I walked in my back yard,

Already I am no longer looked at… My daughters and sons have put me… Are gone from the house. My husband and lovers are pleasant… And night is night.

Carried her unprotesting out the d… Kicked back the casket-stand. But… That stuff and satin aiming to enf… The lid’s contrition nor the bolts… Oh oh. Too much. Too much. Even…

The Pool Players. Seven at the Golden Shovel. We real cool. We Left school. We Lurk late. We

Blackness is a title, is a preoccupation, is a commitment Blacks are to comprehend—

Maud went to college. Sadie stayed home. Sadie scraped life With a fine toothed comb. She didn’t leave a tangle in

Into her mother’s bedroom to wash… “My mother is jelly-hearted and sh… Sweet, quiver-soft, irrelevant. N… Only a habit would cry if she shou… A pleasant sort of fool without th…

Abortions will not let you forget. You remember the children you got… The damp small pulps with a little… The singers and workers that never… You will never neglect or beat

Mrs. Coley’s three-flat brick Isn’t here any more. All done with seeing her fat littl… Burst out of the basement door; And with seeing her African son-i…

To Marc Crawford from whom the commission Whose broken window is a cry of ar… (success, that winks aware as elegance, as a treasonable fait…