The new black

121 Pages·2012·6.056 MB·English

by  Shockley, Evie

evie shockley
WESLEYAN UNIVERSITY PRESS
MIDDLETOWN, CONNECTICUT

WESLEYAN POETRY
Wesleyan University Press
Middletown CT 06459
www.wesleyan.edu/wespress
©2011 Evie Shockley
All rights reserved
First paperback edition, 2011
Manufactured in the United States of America
isbnfor the paperback edition: 978-0-8195-7287-5
Wesleyan University Press is a member of the
Green Press Initiative. The paper used in this book
meets their minimum requirement for recycled paper.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Shockley, Evie, 1965–
The new black : poems / Evie Shockley.
p. cm. — (Wesleyan poetry)
isbn978-0-8195-7140-3 (cloth : alk. paper)
I. Title.
ps3619.h63n49 2011
811'.6—dc22
2010046345
5 4 3 2 1
This project is supported in part by an award
from the National Endowment for the Arts
for alicia and olivia,
the new blacks i love most
&
in loving memory of thelma lucille sayles clifton
(june 27, 1936–february 13, 2010),
in whose oceanic footprints
i splash, after
“i come to comfort the a±icted
and to a±ict the comfortable”
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All their stanzas look alike.
Even this, after publication,
Might look alike. Disproves
My stereo types.
Thomas Sayers Ellis
with the fate of a slingshot stone
loosed from the catapult pronged double with history
and time on a trajectory of hurl and fling
to a state active with without and unknown
i came upon a future biblical with anticipation
M. NourbeSe Philip
yes I’ve tried in vain
never no more to call your name
and in spite of all reminders
misremembered who I am
Harryette Mullen
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