Were there signs? like static dries and up-stands the hairs of wives in the hour before a thunderstorm there were signs: one day he asked if I was seeing anyone else and because we were two birds holding our breath in the knotted throat of a tree I brought my nose to his nose said in my fobbiest accent I am seeing one bald one-eyed man with hair on every toe! hello! and because we were two fish hiding from sky at the bottom of a wishing well he tickled me till I curled the water one day he said I am running as fast as I can to stand still with you these are two many lives for one me one day he waited for me to finish praying before saying what are you doing? that prayer following a transgression must involve some kind of apology is a common misconception it is possible to pray the way one dices an onion the way one touches each doorknob of a house in the morning for luck if there is reverence in flossing meat from between upper molars or beginning symmetric activities with the right side of the body it is possible when kneeling in worship to be distracted by thoughts of another kneeling it is even easier to flex the kegel muscles in prostration but let’s not get sentimental some things are done in order to be done.
"Odell’s many errors were repeated for decades, shaping receptions of Phillis through the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. But a new book, The Age of Phillis, by the poet and professor Honorée Fanonne Jeffers, presents a different story. Jeffers suggests that Odell’s memoir created a 'pesky "House Negro" narrative' that framed Phillis Wheatley as domestic, apolitical, and acquiescent."
Resources for Supporting and Uplifting the Black Community
Know Your Rights Camp: "Our mission is to advance the liberation and well-being of Black and Brown communities through education, self-empowerment, mass-mobilization and the creation of new systems that elevate the next generation of change leaders."
Black AIDS Institute: The mission of the Black AIDS Institute is "to stop the AIDS epidemic in black communities by engaging and mobilizing black institutions and individuals in efforts to confront HIV."
The Conscious Kid: "An education, research and policy organization dedicated to reducing bias and promoting positive identity development in youth. We....promote access to children’s books centering underrepresented and oppressed groups." See, for example, Black Books Matter: Children's Books Celebrating Black Boys.
Poetry Daily stands with the Black community. We oppose racism, oppression, and police brutality. We will continue to amplify diverse voices in the poetry world. Black Lives Matter.
"As visitors approach the sculpture, the vibration of their feet on the gallery floor, their movements, even their breathing, lead to the slow crumbling and collapse of the work itself. The figure takes on a sense of the sublime and of the divine not so much from its scale, but from its impermanence. Its object-hood, its this-ness, is at every moment in the process of disintegration."
