The black figure has always been a subject of entertainment in popular culture, as well as an image to sell things. In some ways, that’s how people relate to us—because they’ve seen us on television.
Derrick Adams
each is beautiful
a woman’s life
makes it (that awareness)
through her touch
descendants
of strict age
set against vanity
not secure in loveliness
a girl is born
like a little bird opening its wing
she lifts her face
in a down of feathers
a rose,
opens its leaves
with such a natural care
that we give words for
petal deep
in the imagination
a word becomes
a bitter thing
or a word is
an imagination
tell our daughters they are
fragile as a bird
strong as the rose
deep as a word
and let them make
their own growing time
big with tenderness
From “Tell Our Daughters,’’ Magdalene Syndrome Gazette; 31 New American Poets; I Hear My Sisters Saying.
Originally published in
Featuring interviews with Frances McDormand, A.M. Homes, Padgett Powell, Tina Girouard, William Pope. L, Butch Morris, Malcolm Morley, Jafar Panahi, and John Elderfield.
The black figure has always been a subject of entertainment in popular culture, as well as an image to sell things. In some ways, that’s how people relate to us—because they’ve seen us on television.
Derrick Adams