Selected Poems

by Brooks, Gwendolyn

• ISBN13: 9780060882969
• ISBN10: 0060882964
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2009-11-17
• Publisher: HarperCollins Publications

Summary

The classic volume by the distinguished modern poet, winner of the 1950 Pulitzer Prize, and recipient of the National Book Foundation Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters, showcases an esteemed artist's technical mastery, her warm humanity, and her compassionate and illuminating response to a complex world.

Table of Contents

A STREET IN BRONZEVILLE
A Street in Bronzeville	3	(9)
kitchenette building	3	(1)
the mother	4	(1)
southeast corner	5	(1)
hunchback girl: she thinks of heaven	5	(1)
a song in the front yard	6	(1)
the ballad of chocolate Mabbie	7	(1)
the preacher: ruminates behind the sermon	8	(1)
Sadie and Maud	8	(1)
the independent man	9	(1)
of De Witt Williams on his way to Lincoln Cemetery	10	(1)
the vacant lot	11	(1)
The Sundays of Satin-Legs Smith	12	(7)
Negro Hero	19	(14)
Gay Chaps at the Bar	22	(11)
gay chaps at the bar	22	(1)
still do I keep my look, my identity...	23	(1)
my dreams, my works, must wait till after hell	23	(1)
looking	24	(1)
piano after war	24	(1)
mentors	25	(1)
the white troops had their orders but the Negroes looked like men	25	(1)
firstly inclined to take what it is told	26	(1)
"God works in a mysterious way"	27	(1)
love note I: surely	27	(1)
love note II: flags	28	(1)
the progress	28	(5)
ANNIE ALLEN
Notes from the Childhood and the Girlhood	33	(5)
Clogged and soft and sloppy eyes	33	(1)
Chicken, she chided early, should not wait	33	(1)
After the baths and bowel-work, he was dead	34	(1)
Late Annie in her bower lay	34	(1)
The duck fats rot in the roasting pan	35	(1)
"Do not be afraid of no"	36	(1)
But can see better there, and laughing there	37	(1)
The Anniad	38	(12)
Think of sweet and chocoalte	38	(12)
Appendix to the Anniad	50	(2)
You need the untranslatable ice to watch	50	(1)
The Certainty we two shall meet by God	51	(1)
Oh mother, mother, where is happiness	51	(1)
The Womanhood	52	(17)
People who have no children can be hard	52	(1)
What shall I give my children? who are poor	53	(1)
And shall I prime my children, pray, to pray?	53	(1)
First fight. Then fiddle. Ply the slipping string	54	(1)
When my dears die, the festival-colored brightness	54	(1)
Life for my child is simple, and is good	55	(1)
Sweet Sally took a cardboard box	56	(1)
A light and diplomatic bird	57	(1)
Carried her unprotesting out the door	58	(1)
They get to Benvenuti's. There are booths	59	(2)
The dry brown coughing beneath their feet	61	(1)
And if sun comes	62	(1)
One wants a Teller in a time like this	63	(1)
People protest in sprawling lightless ways	64	(1)
Men of careful turns, haters of forks in the road	65	(4)
THE BEAN EATERS
In Honor of David Anderson Brooks, My Father	69	(1)
My Little 'Bout-town Gal	70	(1)
Strong Men, Riding Horses	71	(1)
The Bean Eaters	72	(1)
We Real Cool	73	(1)
Old Mary	74	(1)
A Bronzeville Mother Loiters in Mississippi. Meanwhile, a Mississippi Mother Burns Bacon.	75	(6)
The Last Quatrain of the Ballad of Emmett Till	81	(1)
Mrs. Small	82	(3)
Jessie Mitchell's Mother	85	(2)
The Chicago Defender Sends a Man to Little Rock	87	(3)
The Lovers of the Poor	90	(4)
A Sunset of the City	94	(2)
A Man of the Middle Class	96	(3)
The Crazy Woman	99	(1)
Bronzeville Man with a Belt in the Back	100	(1)
A Lovely Love	101	(1)
A Penitent Considers Another Coming of Mary	102	(1)
Bronzeville Woman in a Red Hat	103	(4)
In Emanuel's Nightmare: Another Coming of Christ	107	(3)
The Ballad of Rudolph Reed	110	(5)
NEW POEMS
Riders to the Blood-red Wrath	115	(4)
The Empty Woman	119	(1)
To Be in Love	120	(2)
Of Robert Frost	122	(1)
Langston Hughes	123	(1)
A Catch of Shy Fish	124	(5)
garbageman: the man with the orderly mind	124	(1)
sick man looks at flowers	124	(1)
old people working (garden, car)	125	(1)
weaponed woman	125	(1)
old tennis player	125	(1)
a surrealist and Omega	126	(1)
Spaulding and Francois	126	(1)
Big Bessie throws her son into the street	127	(2)
About Gwendolyn Brooks	129

Excerpts

Selected Poems

A Street in Bronzeville

to David and Keziab Brooks

kitchenette building

We are things of dry hours and the involuntary plan,
Grayed in, and gray. "Dream" makes a giddy sound, not strong
Like "rent," "feeding a wife," "satisfying a man."

But could a dream send up through onion fumes
Its white and violet, fight with fried potatoes
And yesterday's garbage ripening in the hall,
Flutter, or sing an aria down these rooms

Even if we were willing to let it in,
Had time to warm it, keep it very clean,
Anticipate a message, let it begin?

We wonder. But not well! not for a minute!
Since Number Five is out of the bathroom now,
We think of lukewarm water, hope to get in it.

Selected Poems. Copyright © by Gwendolyn Brooks. Reprinted by permission of HarperCollins Publishers, Inc. All rights reserved. Available now wherever books are sold.

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Excerpted from Selected Poems by Gwendolyn Brooks
All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.