Free Chasing Utopia by Nikki Giovanni Page B

Enslavement in America
    and maintained their humanity
    through unspeakable acts
    In the precious name of Phillis Wheatley
    who was put on Academic Trial
    forcing her to prove she wrote her own Poems
    to the confident Paul Laurence Dunbar
    who kept the plantation tongue alive
    In the Brave name of W. E. B. DuBois
    who studied The Atlantic Slave Trade
    to Jessie Fauset
    who wrote children’s stories
    In the name of the incomparable Langston Hughes
    who taught us
    The tom-tom cries and
    the tom-tom laughs
    to the anger of Richard Wright
    In the name of the Honesty of James Baldwin
    In the fearlessness of Margaret Walker
    to the beautiful poems of Gwendolyn Brooks
    In the name of the awesome Toni Morrison
    And the truly wonderful spirit of Rita Dove
    In the names of those whom we silently call
    and in the names of those whose names will call us
    in the future
    This is for
    Sonia Sanchez

FOR HAKI MADHUBUTI
    Words are the lifeblood of writers. Though I must admit I don’t know if we dream in words or if we word our dreams.
    Words are like quilts. You have to put a bunch together to make something warm and comforting or patch together something that will prick and scratch the spirit. No matter how we weave this experience, we sculpt an idea and shape a phrase.
    A phrase. Usually we find phrases to describe whatever it is. No word is sufficient to stand alone. Not even strong words like FREEDOM or soft words like LOVE. They all are better when added to . . . for example FOR ALL . . . or Je t’aime . Love phrases work in all languages.
    The human experiment has turned on many important phrases WE THE PEOPLE, taxation without representation and even things like REMEMBER THE MAINE. There are other political phrases like LIBERTÉ, ÉGALITÉ, FRATERNITÉ. I especially like WE SHALL OVERCOME. There are personal phrases like Yes . Which may be the only one-word phrase we ever use. No requires a bit more. There are personal phrases such as You Look Beautiful and I am so proud of you but maybe that’s a sentence not a phrase.
    The human imagination is the engine that has carried us from caves in Europe, from the rain forests of South America, from the lush and mineral-rich lands of Africa, from the beautiful amber waves of North America, from the roaring seas and the frozen tundra to this meeting with these artists here at Virginia Tech and, in fact, to wherever humans gather.
    There are philosophical phrases, theological phrases, scientific phrases, economic phrases, political phrases, phrases to explain and express. BUT
    there is one phrase that, if a phrase could be said to jump-start the human heart, we all know and love. Writers took up this phrase from the griots and soothsayers of old. As we began this journey with words, which is yet ever expanding our emotional and physical universe, we still find in our darkest hours and our most joyful moments the need to gather ’round the fire, or circle the wagons, or tuck into bed the young and the old with the enchantment of that magical phrase “Once Upon A Time . . . ” We know the storyteller has arrived. We comfort our spirits to think and dream. We know those other magical words will follow: In A Land Far Away . . . and our imaginations can soar safe within the hopes and sometimes the prayers.

OUR JOB SAFETY IS YOUR PRIORITY WITH COFFEE
    I have written the essay below to help explain how I edit my poetry. I am more inclined to say I create a path through which I hope to take the reader rather than finding a perfect word to make the reader follow my thought. I have chosen a new poem: COFFEE because I actually did make a new pathway once I gave it a second or third look. I think the second version is an easier walk. I wrote to share my feelings about the edit.
    Job   (Y)