52 Poems and Stories. I Didn't Know I Had These Poems.

I didn't know I had this poems.  These poems are from two books on my shelves: Flat Footed Truths: Telling Black Woman's Lives by Patricia Bell-Scott and Sisterfire: Black Womanist Fiction and Poetry Edited by Charlotte Watson Sherman.

"IF YOU LOSE YOUR PEN"  Ruth Forman

and all you find is a broken pencil on the floor
and the pencil has no sharpener
and the sharpener is in the store
and your pocket has no money

and if you look
again
 and all you find is a black Bic
and the Bic you need is green

and if it appears beneath the mattress of your couch
but the couch is dirty and suddenly you want to clean
beneath the pillows
but you have no vacuum and the vacuum is in the store
and your pocket has no money

it is not your pen you are looking for
it is your tongue and those who speak with it
your grandmothers and doves and ebony spiders
hovering in the corners of your throat

it is your tongue
and if you cannot find your tongue
do not go looking for the cat
you know you will not find her
she is in the neighbor’s kitchen eating Friskies
she is in the neighbor’s yard making love


if you cannot find your tongue do not look for it
for you are so busy looking it cannot find you
the doves are getting dizzy and your grandmothers annoyed
be still and let them find you
they will come when they are ready

and when they are
it will not matter if your pockets are empty
if you write with a green Bic or a black Bic
or the blood of your finger
you will write
you will write
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 I am waiting to be found. I want to be found.  Judaye
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"night vision"   Lucille Clifton


The girl fits her body in
to the space between the bed
and the wall. she is a stalk,
exhausted. she will do some
thing with this. she will
surround these bones with flesh.
she will cultivate night vision.
she will train her tongue
to lie still in her mouth and listen.
the girl slips into sleep.
her dream is red and raging.
she will remember 
to build something human with it.
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Those of us who have been hurt deeply still love, inspire, and nurture those around us and ourselves.  How do we?  How can we?  We knew we would make something out of darkness and evil someday no matter how hard it was.  We are amazing.  Judaye
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