“Let a race of men now rise and take control” – Theme for Week #4, April 22 thru April 29
DevotionReader Series: 30 Ways of Looking at Black Poetry
Comin Strong - Haki Madhubuti (Don L. Lee)
And where are the men Black and ready? some say, they’ve lost their way beneath pig’s litter and fool’s gold. others say, they are hid under political deception & three dollar bills returning in numbers as colored traitors clothed in abundance
the real word is that the men have become pregnant with spoiled food & thoughts of false grandeur. they drive boat cars, smoke strange weeds, destroy their noses with crippling dust, manicure their nails & talk wrong about their women. some say, it is best that these men stay lost.
the new men Black do not measure themselves in the way of the elusive streets do not look toward the west as the test. the new men Black with dust & dirt are clear thinkers and city learned are not tied to garbage cans & whiskey breath. these men take their sons seriously & listen closely to their daughters. they do not come as beggars or buyers they are teachers and doers returning in a force that’s unimaginable.
the new men Black are tongue silent, hawkeyed and dangerous. many who should know say that these men do not play, do not pass blank checks. they say that these men cannot be bought.
Haki Madhubuti, (Don L. Lee), Earthquakes and Sun Rise Missions, Third World Press, 1984, 1987
Devotionreader.com 30 Days of Looking at Black Poetry -- Day: One O Black and Unknown Bards Two Listen Children Three For the Record Four Ballad of Birmingham Five Six The Idea of Ancestry Seven I Want to Write Eight A Grandfather Poem Nine Sweet Sound Ten My Brother is Homemade Eleven Those Winter Sundays Twelve SOS Thirteen Resurrections Fourteen Jessie Mitchell's Mother Fifteen April Rain Song Sixteen I've Got A Home in that Rock Seventeen Earth Screaming Eighteen Returning Spring Nineteen Newark, for Now [68] Twenty Dawn Twenty-One Fir Twenty-Two Comin Strong Twenty-Three From a Black Feminists Conference Reflections on Margaret Walker: Poet Twenty-Four My Africa Twenty-Five Strong Men Twenty-Six Today's News Twenty-Seven My Guilt Twenty-Eight Forward, Always Forward Twenty-Nine The Seven Principles of Kwanzaa Thirty What Harriet Said
