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African American Ebooks
Category:
Poetry
Pages: 80
Copyright: Jan 1 1977
La Di La Dah is a home-based press, manufacturing individually, hand-printed, easy-to-hold, books with slight irregularities, large print and quality content.
Excerpt
Of this collection of poems (volumes I & II), it can only be said, that they have the "right to be." A sentiment expressed so well in the poem "The Right to Be" in volume II:
This sifter, bent, its colors worn,
The rolling pin is scarred from years
Like hands that held them early dawns,
Now stilled, withdrawn, no longer here;
But in this house on this fresh land,
I keep as sacred what's deep in me,
And teach children to understand
Some things have earned their right to be;
That when they throw out age-old things,
Replacing them with things they buy,
They will know value seasons bring
And thank the oceans and the sky
For tin-roof huts, wood-burning stoves,
Or bare oak floors and earthen pots,
The cedars cut in far-off groves
And Christmas day with kindreth folks;
A sifter's sound from kitchen doors,
A rolling pin and prayer for me,
The shuffling feet on scrubbed pine floors;
Such things have earned their right to be.
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