That the society back then as a whole was highly He will recall several times during the report In “My Old Kentucky Home: where the darkies are gay,” the speaker tries to imagine what an archaeologist of the future will think of our culture’s treatment of the Black body: Other poems in the collection, such as “The Greatest Show on Earth,” “Hate,” and “Easy Bake” make it clear that the speaker’s body is also rooted in a series of cultural experiences, many of which violated not just her body but the bodies of people like her. And just before theīirth of her favorite time of day, with a soft suddenness, Iįelt the warm, heavy wind of the Great Mother lift the plainĭutiful life of another mother to the beyond. There in the middle of her ocean of brilliant pansies andīegonias, I watched pine and oak sway like summonedĭancers then bend loyally like servants. Waiting for a sign from her that she was alright. Evenīefore the long car was out of sight I was there on the porch She had taught me to believe in things unseen. Unlike Aunt Nina, who was mostly loved from a distance, grandmother Beulah is a close, loving presence…though no less a force of nature. The long prose poem, “Hurricane Beulah,” is a similar reminiscence, colored with more love and affection. Is not further evidence of more meanness, justĮverlasting belief in the power of prayer. On Sundays aunt Nina prays out loud for lightning Her power, even in illness, is electrifying: “Mean Nina” was, for me, the most poignant of these, the story of a family member with a reputation for fierceness, now dying slowly in a nursing home.
Poems such as “Coda,” “The New Medicine,” and “Mean Nina” explore the landscape of family relationships, and how the speaker positions herself there. The speaker’s / speakers’ bodily experiences are rooted in family and community. This not with my mind but with my body the bodyĬan so remember what long ago left the accidental Finney’s work has a grace and a presence, firmly rooted in the body of her lived experience, which the speaker of “The World is Round: the breast of the garment measured” makes clear: My gut reaction to this volume is, simply, respect. Image spotted at Eternal Summer of the Black Feminist Mind – click through to read.
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