Nzadi Keita’s poems about a “first gen North-born” Black woman
Keita has written a stunning collection about growing up in a working-class Black family in 1960s Philadelphia.
Old St. Adalbert Cemetery
developed in the late 1870s...
On a Photo of the Lorraine Motel
Men die once but he will be mourned each time
we hear his voice, like a promise out
of the Bible comforting us. He was shot
at Vespertime, when prayers are said...
Paul Mariani seeks wisdom among the ghosts
The poet, now in his eighties, asks profound questions in a dazzling array of poems.
Abishag on King David
1 Kings: 1:1–4
Now in the cold part of his life, he lies alone
with no one to warm his memory
of great deeds done for great blessings....
Zebedee’s gift
I think the Galilee loved them
almost as much as I did.
Days waiting for fish, then hauling
nets through fresh fields of water, overflowing...
John the Baptist
Out of the wilderness came this prophet of fire
and repentance, his voice a flame igniting
souls out of darkness to witness the Messiah....
The best said prayers
Somewhere between our soil and his sun,
between the puddles we drive through
and the oceans he tunes, somewhere...
Dr. King’s voice in verse
Joseph Ross’s poems are an elegy for the civil rights movement’s martyrs.