Her blue body everything we know : earthling poems, 1965-1990 complete / Alice Walker.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Walker, Alice, 1944-

Language:

English

Physical Description:

xvi, 463 pages ; 21 cm

Place of Publication:

Orlando, Fla. : Harcourt, Inc., [2003]

Summary:

In Her Preface to this collection Alice Walker expresses surprise that she has been writing poetry for more than a quarter of a century -- since the summer of 1965 when she traveled to East Africa and began writing the poems that would form her first volume. Here, in an inspiring compilation of her earlier poetry, Walker offers a historical perspective on the political and spiritual issues spanning three decades of injustice, perseverance, and hope. Revelatory introductions to each group of poems become essential threads in the tapestry that is Alice Walker, tightly weaving a special insight into the evolving consciousness of one of the most remarkable and provocative literary voices of our time.

Contents:

Once 1

African Images, Glimpses from a Tiger's Back 7

Love 53

Karamojongs 63

Once 72

Chic Freedom's Reflection 96

South: The Name of Home 99

Hymn 103

The Democratic Order: Such Things in Twenty Years I Understood 106

They Who Feel Death 107

On being asked to leave a place of honor for one of comfort; preferably in the northern suburbs 108

The Enemy 109

Compulsory Chapel 110

To the Man in the Yellow Terry 112

The Kiss 115

What Ovid Taught Me 116

Mornings / of an impossible love 118

So We've Come at Last to Freud 124

Johann 126

The Smell of Lebanon 129

Warning 131

The Black Prince 132

Medicine 133

Ballad of the brown girl 135

Suicide 137

Excuse 138

To die before one wakes must be glad 139

Exercises on Themes from Life 142

Revolutionary Petunias & Other Poems 151

In These Dissenting Times ... Surrounding Ground and Autobiography 155

i. The Old Men Used to Sing 157

ii. Winking at a Funeral 158

iii. Women 159

iv. Three Dollars Cash 161

v. You Had to Go to Funerals 162

vi. Uncles 164

vii. They Take a Little Nip 166

viii. Sunday School, Circa 1950 168

Burial 169

For My Sister Molly Who in the Fifties 175

Eagle Rock 180

Baptism 183

J, My Good Friend (another foolish innocent) 184

View from Rosehill Cemetery: Vicksburg 185

Revolutionary Petunias ... The Living Through 188

Revolutionary Petunias 189

Expect Nothing 191

Be Nobody's Darling 193

Reassurance 195

Nothing Is Right 198

Crucifixions 199

Black Mail 200

Lonely Particular 202

Perfection 204

The Girl Who Died #1 205

Ending 206

Lost My Voice? Of Course 207

The Girl Who Died #2 208

The Old Warrior Terror 210

Judge Every One with Perfect Calm 211

The QPP 212

He Said Come 213

Mysteries ... The Living Beyond 214

Mysteries 216

Gift 221

Clutter-up People 222

Thief 224

Will 225

Rage 226

Storm 227

What the Finger Writes 228

Forbidden Things 229

No Fixed Place 230

New Face 231

The Nature of This Flower Is to Bloom 232

While Love Is Unfashionable 233

Beyond What 234

The Nature of This Flower Is to Bloom 235

Good Night, Willie Lee, I'll See You in the Morning 237

Confession 243

Did This Happen to Your Mother? Did Your Sister Throw Up a Lot? 244

More Love to His Life 247

Gift 249

Never Offer Your Heart to Someone Who Eats Hearts 251

Threatened 253

My Husband Says 255

Confession 257

The Instant of Our Parting 258

He Said 259

The Last Time 260

After the Shrink 261

At First 262

On Stripping Bark from Myself ... 263

Janie Crawford 264

Moody 265

Now That the Book Is Finished 266

Having Eaten Two Pillows 267

Light baggage 268

On Stripping Bark from Myself 270

Early Losses: a Requiem 272

Early Losses: a Requiem 273

In Uganda an Early King 281

Forgive Me If My Praises 283

The Abduction of Saints 288

Malcolm 291

Facing the Way 292

(In answer to your silly question) 293

Streaking (a phenomenon following the sixties) 294

"'Women of Color' Have Rarely Had The Opportunity to Write About Their Love Affairs" 295

Facing the way 298

Talking to my grandmother who died poor (while hearing Richard Nixon declare "I am not a crook.") 300

January 10, 1973 302

Forgiveness 303

Your Soul Shines 304

Forgiveness 305

Even as I hold you 306

"Good Night, Willie Lee, I'll See You in the Morning" 307

Horses Make a Landscape Look More Beautiful 309

Remember? 317

These Mornings of Rain 319

First, They Said 322

Listen 324

S M 326

The Diamonds on Liz's Bosom 328

We Alone 329

Attentiveness 330

1971 331

Every Morning 333

How Poems Are Made: A Discredited View 335

Mississippi Winter I 337

Mississippi Winter II 338

Mississippi Winter III 339

Mississippi Winter IV 340

Love is not concerned 341

She said 342

Walker 343

Killers 344

Songless 345

A Few Sirens 348

Poem at Thirty-nine 351

I Said to Poetry 353

Gray 356

Overnights 358

My Daughter Is Coming! 360

When Golda Meir Was in Africa 362

If "Those People" Like You 364

On Sight 366

I'm Really Very Fond 368

Representing the Universe 369

Family of 371

Each One, Pull One 374

Who? 378

Without Commercials 379

No One Can Watch the Wasichu 384

The Thing Itself 387

Torture 389

Well 390

Song 394

These Days 396

We Have a Beautiful Mother: Previously Uncollected Poems 407

My Heart Has Reopened to You 411

Some Things I Like about My Triple Bloods 416

Telling 418

Pagan 420

Natural Star 422

If There Was Any Justice 424

Beast 430

Ndebele 432

We Have a Map of the World 436

The Right to Life 442

Armah 449

The Awakening 452

A woman is not a potted plant 454

Winnie Mandela We Love You 456

We Have a Beautiful Mother 459

Once, Again 461.

Notes:

Reprint. Originally published: 1968.

ISBN:

0156028611

OCLC:

55035994