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you rose, a morning prayer / a bouquet of salt and honey, / swept through me like a tide of bata
 

 

 

A Poem for a Man Who 

Knows Very Well Who He Is

By Ekere Tallie

It took four hours for me
to stop tingling where you touched,
for orchids to quiet whispering
between my thighs

you rose, a morning prayer
a bouquet of salt and honey,
swept through me like a tide of bata

where do you come from, magic man
that you remind me I am sacred
that you ask and offer
that you replace what was taken

where do you come from, magic man
that your breath makes
each morning holy.

*   *   *   *   *

 

 
 

Mariahadessa Ekere Tallie is a poet, writer and journalist.  Her poetry and fiction have been published in several journals in the United States, France and South Africa including: Bomb Long Shot, Paris/Atlantic, Drumvoices Revue, Carapace. Her works have been anthologized in Listen Up! (One World/Ballantine) and Catch The Fire!!! (Penguin/ Putnam) Bum Rush The Page: A Def Poetry Jam (Random House), Role Call (Third World Press). Ms. Tallie is Contributing Writer for African Voices literary magazine where she has worked since 1995. Ms. Tallie performs her poetry regularly and has been a featured reader at the De Nachten Festivals in Holland and Belgium, the Nuyorican Poets Cafe, Brooklyn Moon Cafe, Rutgers University, Hunter College, Barnes and Noble, Bryant Park, Mills College, Brooklyn Public library. She has collaborated with dancers and musicians, most notably for the "Jazz and the Spoken Word "segment of the Panasonic Village Jazz Festival, with Mingus Amungus in California and Words and Waistbeads Womans Collective in New York City. Ms Tallie also worked with Gerard Gaskin and Caroline Poon for an exhibition of words, photography and pottery titled "The Experiment." In 1999 Ms. Tallie was awarded a residency at Fundacion Valparaiso in Almeria, Spain. She has work forthcoming in Beyond The Frontier, (Black Classic Press), The Body Eclectic (Henry Holt) and The Book of Hope (Beyond Borders). 

Education

    Master of Fine Arts English/Creative Writing Mills College, Dec 2001
    Ploughshares International Writing Seminar Kasteel Well, Netherlands Emerson College, 1998
    Bachelor of Arts, Mass Communication Clark Atlanta University, 1996

    "Love is a story that we never stop telling" Veronique Tadjo

     http://www.ekeretallie.com

 

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