In The Poetry

Thomas and Beulah is a book of poems which is actually a sequence of poems – a double sequence. These poems tell the story of a marriage – two African-Americans who came to age during the 20th Century. Thomas gets work in the rubber factories of Akron, Ohio which were exploding so rapidly that they [...]

In my 1999 book On the Bus with Rosa Parks – in this sequence, the titular sequence, I speculate not only on Rosa Parks’ historic non-doing, her refusing to give up her seat on the segregated bus in Montgomery, Alabama, 1955, but also speculate on any moment in history when one is suddenly confronted with [...]

My husband and I took up ballroom dancing and a whole series of poems emerged because of that, forming the nucleus of a book that is called American Smooth. I will read that title poem for you.

American Smooth

We were dancing – it must have
been a foxtrot or a waltz,
something romantic but
requiring restraint,
rise and fall, precise
execution [...]

My husband and I took up ballroom dancing and a whole series of poems emerged because of that, forming the nucleus of a book that is called American Smooth. I will read that title poem for you.

American Smooth

We were dancing – it must have
been a foxtrot or a waltz,
something romantic but
requiring restraint,
rise and fall, precise
execution [...]

Hattie McDaniel was the first African-American to receive an Academy Award. She received that award in 1940 for her role as a maid in the movie Gone with the Wind which was produced in 1939. Hattie McDaniel was torn between many varying political groups – there were those in the north who felt it was [...]

Thomas and Beulah is a book of poems which is actually a sequence of poems – a double sequence. These poems tell the story of a marriage – two African-Americans who came to age during the 20th Century. Thomas gets work in the rubber factories of Akron, Ohio which were exploding so rapidly that they [...]

In my 1999 book On the Bus with Rosa Parks – in this sequence, the titular sequence, I speculate not only on Rosa Parks’ historic non-doing, her refusing to give up her seat on the segregated bus in Montgomery, Alabama, 1955, but also speculate on any moment in history when one is suddenly confronted with [...]