ChickenBones: A Journal

for Literary & Artistic African-American Themes

   

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he led me trembling cold / into the dark forest

taught me the secret rites / to make it with a woman

 

 

 

Books by Etheridge Knight

Poems from PrisonBlack Voices from Prison  / Belly Song and Other Poems 

 Born of a Woman  / Essential Etheridge Knight

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He Sees Through Stone

By Etheridge Knight

He sees through stone

he has the secret

eyes this old black one

who under prison skies

sits pressed by the sun

against the western wall

his pipe between purple gums

 

the years fall

like overripe plums

bursting red flesh

on the dark earth

 

his time is not my time

but I have known him

in a time gone

 

he led me trembling cold

into the dark forest

taught me the secret rites

to make it with a woman

to be true to my brothers

to make my spear drink

the blood of my enemies

 

now black cats circle him

flash white teeth

snarl at the air

mashing green grass beneath

shining muscles

 

ears peeling his words

he smiles

he knows

the hunt the enemy

he has the secret eyes

he sees through stone

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posted 2 December 2005

 

 
 

Etheridge Knight, born in Corinth, Mississippi, perhaps will be remembered for his excellence in blending oral and poetic traditions as he tried to create works that confronted personal and social dimensions with relentless honesty. Some critics praised him on his ability to render the genre of the toast as high art. He began writing poetry in 1963 while he was incarcerated at Indiana prison. His books include Poems from Prison, Black Voices from Prison, Belly Song and Other Poems, Born of a Woman, and the Essential Etheridge Knight. Knight received NEA grants in 1972 and 1980 and won a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1974. His work is included in such anthologies as Dices and Black Bones, Norton Anthology of American Poets, New Black Voices, and Black Poets. Etheridge died in 1991.

Source: Black Southern Voices, Edited by John Oliver Killens and Jerry W. Ward, Jr.

Read also Bio at Poets.org

 

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Related file:  Homespun Images  He Sees Through Stone  Etheridge Knight Speaks     Once on a Night in the Delta  A Conversation with Myself