An African-American poet for today’s Another 21 Days/21 Poems as I continue my celebration of US National Poetry Month. Enjoy this one from Rita Dove!
“I have been a stranger in a strange land”
Life’s spell is so exquisite, everything conspires to break it.
Emily DickinsonIt wasn’t bliss. What was bliss
but the ordinary life? She’d spend hours
in patter, moving through whole days
touching, sniffing, tasting . . . exquisite
housekeeping in a charmed world.
And yet there was alwaysmore of the same, all that happiness,
the aimless Being There.
So she wandered for a while, bush to arbor,
lingered to look through a pond’s restive mirror.
He was off cataloging the universe, probably,
pretending he could organize
what was clearly someone else’s chaos.That’s when she found the tree,
the dark, crabbed branches
bearing up such speechless bounty,
she knew without being told
this was forbidden. It wasn’t
a question of ownership—
who could lay claim to
such maddening perfection?And there was no voice in her head,
no whispered intelligence lurking
in the leaves—just an ache that grew
until she knew she’d already lost everything
except desire, the red heft of it
warming her outstretched palm.– by Rita Dove
Source of poem. Read more about Rita Dove and her poetry here and here.
Kinna Reads 
NICE POEM……….
LikeLike
[…] by a West African A poem by a Southern African A poem a European of African descent A poem by an Americas poet of African descent A poem by a Caribbean poet A poem about a child or a young person A poem about Slavery or the […]
LikeLike
Lovely poem.
LikeLike