Summer Words of a Sistuh Addict
The first day i shot dopewas on a Sunday.i had justcome home from churchgot mad at mymotha cuz she got mad at me. udig?went out. shot upbehind a feelen gainst her.it felt good.gooder than dooing it. yeah.it was nice.i did it. uh. huh. i did it. uh. huh. iwant to do it again, it felt so gooooood.and as the sistuh sits in her silent/remembered/high someone leans forward gently asks her:sistuh. did u finallylearn how to holdyo/mother?and the music of the daydrifts in theroom to mingle with the sistuh’syoung tears.and we all sing.
Feature Date
- July 8, 2019
Series
- What Sparks Poetry
Selected By
- Yona Harvey
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Copyright © 1985 by Sonia Sanchez
All rights reserved.
Reproduced by Poetry Daily with permission.
Sonia Sanchez—poet, activist, scholar—was the Laura Carnell Professor of English and Women’s Studies at Temple University. She is the recipient of both the Robert Frost Medal for distinguished lifetime service to American poetry and the Langston Hughes Poetry Award. One of the most important writers of the Black Arts Movement, Sanchez is the author of sixteen books.
The author of several books of poetry, Sanchez’s I’ve Been A Woman is the dynamic transcendental female voice of one of the finest poets of our time. Includes “Black Magic: Blk Rhetoric” and “Blues.”
“Sonia Sanchez is a lion in literature’s forest. When she writes she roars, and when she sleeps other creatures walk gingerly.”
—Maya Angelou
“The poetry of Sonia Sanchez is full of power and yet always clean and uncluttered. It makes you wish you had thought those thoughts, felt those emotions and, above all, expressed them so effortlessly and so well.”
—Chinua Achebe
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