ChickenBones: A Journal

for Literary & Artistic African-American Themes

    

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In between songs she talks of life / and love as if she believes,

takes each of us up, a plateau / of voice inspired by blues, jazz, soul

strong as an elder's hands
 

 

 

Books by Mary E. Weems

Public Education and the Imagination-Intellect: I Speak from the Wound in My Mouth  / Tampon Class

An Unmistakable Shade of Red & The Obama Chronicles

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"Breaking the Hymen"

 By Mary Weems

Her image on my friend's wall,

flower perched in her hair like Lady Day

takes me back to a star-dark night,

oval revolving stage, West African queen

illuminated by lights that kiss her feet

like man in love

 

My head's stuck in an upturn, breathing

a rote response, all energy directed

to ears riding on melodious wave.

 

In between songs she talks of life

and love as if she believes,

takes each of us up, a plateau

of voice inspired by blues, jazz, soul

strong as an elder's hands

 

I've always wished I could sing like Hyman,

open, easy, free, sound of lyrics

born in a body, composer God,

teacher the universe

 

There's a lesson here, woman who took

my breath away, magnificence

all of us could see

 

A gift she could not imagine.

Several days later she ended

a life I would have sworn was just beginning

to take shape

 

like a virgin who chooses

escape before a man

breaks her hymen.

 

        (Phyllis Hyman, Singer, (1949-1995 / Committed Suicide, 6-30-95)

 

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Mary E. Weems, Ph.D. is an accomplished poet, playwright, author, editor, performer, motivational speaker, and imagination-intellect theorist. Weems has been widely published in journals, anthologies, and several books including Public Education and the Imagination-Intellect: I Speak from the Wound in My Mouth (Lang, 2003), developed from her dissertation which argues for imagination-intellectual development as the primary goal of public education. She won the Wick Chapbook Award for her collection in 1996, and in 1997 her play Another Way to Dance won the Chilcote award for The Most Innovative Play by an Ohio Playwright. Her most recent chapbook Tampon Class (Pavement Saw Press, 2005) is in its second printing. Mary Weems currently teaches in the English and Education departments at John Carroll University, and works as a language-artist-scholar in k-12 classrooms, university settings and other venues through her business Bringing Words to Life. Contact Professor Weems, mweems45@sbcglobal.net, for readings and information.

Mary Weems is the eldest daughter of four, the mama of one daughter, Michelle E. Weems, and the blessed-to-be-with-him-wife/partner of James Amie. Proud to have been raised by her mama, and to be from a poor, working-class background, Mary started writing poems when she was thirteen to learn to love herself. This took a while. Since then, her creative spirit-eye has turned more and more outward to include her take on the African-American experience from a personal and political perspective as well as the universal complexities of being a woman and anyone alive in the world. Mary E. Weems Table

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posted 4 March 2008

 

 

Home   Mary E. Weems Table