April 1975
By Reuben JacksonShould my black
Flatlander eyes
Lock on the other
Calling poets to a greater role in public life and fostering a national network of socially engaged poets.
By Anastacia-Reneethe cedar tree could not comprehend
the crime could not comprehend a leaning
a lynching a love gone wrong
By Joseph RossWhen you walk past Klans-
men, smiling at you
on your way into the court
house, wondering how
By Fred Joinera pocket can sometimes be
a kind of prison,
I have never lived in
By Wo ChanShe closed the doors
and then the blinds
and then her face, midday.
By José B. Gonzálezmy mouth agape for these english words made of stone
their sharpness could split my tongue, but one by one
i’ll use them to build a wall, one by one
By Keith Wilsonshall i tell you, then, that we exist?
there came a light, blue and white careening,
the police like wailing angels
to bitter me.
By Keno Evolthe night i was to meet my brother for the first time in 23 years he ain’t show / absence is not what comes up from that memory / more it was the dusk in September / how fog can hide a growl
By Julie Enszerto the place where the idea
of being a pinko commie dyke
first entered her mind,
By Pat Parker (d.)I wish I could be
the lover you want
come joyful
bear brightness