1. In Knowledge of Young Boys
Toi Derricotte
23 April 09 http://thumbs.dreamstime.com/thumb_286/1215259312BwREj8.jpg
2. In Knowledge of Young Boys
i knew you before you had a mother,
when you were newtlike, swimming,
a horrible brain in water.
i knew you when your connections
belonged only to yourself,
when you had no history
to hook on to,
barnacle,
when you had no sustenance of metal
when you had no boat to travel
Continue……
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3. In Knowledge of Young Boys
when you stayed in the same
place, treading the question;
i knew you when you were all
eyes and a cocktail,
blank as the sky of a mind,
a root, neither ground nor placental;
not yet
red with the cut nor astonished
by pain, one terrible eye
open in the center of your head
Continue……
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4. In Knowledge of Young Boys
to night, turning, and the stars
blinked like a cat. we swam
in the last trickle of champagne
before we knew breastmilk—we
shared the night of the closet,
the parasitic
closing on our thumbprint,
we were smudged in a yellow book.
son, we were oak without
mouth, uncut, we were
brave before memory.
http://poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/20637
5. Toi Derricotte
Toi Derricotte was born in Hamtramck, Michigan, in
1941. She earned her B.A. in special education from
Wayne State University and her M.A. in English
literature from New York University.
Her books of poetry include Tender (1997) which won
the 1998 Paterson Poetry Prize; Captivity (1989);
Natural Birth (1983); and The Empress of the Death
House (1978). She is also the author of a literary
memoir, The Black Notebooks (W.W. Norton, 1997),
which won the 1998 Annisfield-Wolf Book Award for
Non-Fiction.
Together with Cornelius Eady, she co-founded Cave
Canem, a workshop retreat for black poets, in 1996.
http://poets.org/poet.php/prmPID/107
6. National Poetry Month
National Poetry Month is a month-long, national celebration of
poetry established by the Academy of American Poets. The
concept is to widen the attention of individuals and the media
— to the art of poetry, to living poets, to our complex poetic
heritage, and to poetry books and journals of wide aesthetic
range and concern.
