{"id":5655,"date":"2013-04-08T20:03:44","date_gmt":"2013-04-09T00:03:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/beginnersheart\/?p=5655"},"modified":"2013-04-08T20:03:44","modified_gmt":"2013-04-09T00:03:44","slug":"day-8-national-poetry-month-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beginnersheart\/2013\/04\/day-8-national-poetry-month-2.html","title":{"rendered":"day 8, National Poetry Month ~"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>During my master’s, I was besotted with the poet Robert Hayden. I read every one of his poems, all his prose, the critical biography on him, and the few scholarly articles available. I still think he is the most under-appreciated of great American poets.<\/p>\n

Hayden’s work had an enormous impact on me. He moved deftly between dialect and difficult image, between history and allusion, between the intimately personal and the disillusioned political. I adored him then, and I still do.<\/p>\n

This poem is one of my favourites, ‘A Ballad of Remembrance.’ It speaks deeply to this Buddhist & Unitarian. Of place, of heritage, of the taste of words as rich as chocolate, melting on the tongue.<\/p>\n

A bit longer than the other poems I’ve shared to date, it will seduce you if you’ll let it. As Hayden does.<\/p>\n

Here’s Robert Hayden’s ‘A Ballad of Remembrance’:<\/p>\n

A Ballad of Remembrance<\/p>\n

\n

Quadroon mermaids, Afro angels, black saints
\nbalanced upon the switchblades of that air
\nand sang. Tight streets unfolding to tile eye
\nlike fans of corrosion and elegiac lace
\ncrackled whit their singing: Shadow of time. Shadow of blood.<\/p>\n

Shadow, echoed the Zulu king, dangling
\nfrom a cluster of balloons. Blood,
\nwhined the gun-metal priestess, floating
\nover the courtyard where dead men diced.<\/p>\n

What will you have? she inquired, the sallow vendeuse
\nof prepared tarnishes and jokes of nacre and ormolu,
\nwhat but those gleamings, oldrose graces,
\nmanners like scented gloves? Contrived ghosts
\nrapped to metronome clack of lavalieres.<\/p>\n

Contrived illuminations riding a threat
\nof river, masked Negroes wearing chameleon
\nsatins gaudy now as a fortuneteller\u2019s
\ndream of disaster, lighted the crazy flopping
\ndance of love and hate among joys, rejections.<\/p>\n

Accommodate, muttered the Zulu king,
\ntoad on a throne of glaucous poison jewels.
\nLove, chimed the saints and the angels and the mermaids.
\nHate, shrieked tine gun-metal priestess
\nfrom her spiked bellcollar curved like a fleur-de-lis:<\/p>\n

As well have a talon as a finger, a muzzle as a mouth,
\nas well have a hollow as a heart. And she pinwheeled
\naway in coruscations of laughter, scattering
\nthose others before her like foil stars.<\/p>\n

But the dance continued\u2014now among metaphorical
\ndoors, coffee cups floating poised
\nhysterias, decors of illusion; now among
\nmazurka dolls offering death\u2019s-heads
\nof cocaine roses and real violets.<\/p>\n

Then you arrived, meditative, ironic,
\nrichly human; and your presence was shore where I rested
\nreleased from tile hoodoo of that dance, where I spoke
\nwith my true voice again.<\/p>\n

And therefore this is not only a ballad of remembrance
\nfor the down-South arcane city with death
\nin its jaws like gold teeth and archaic cusswords;
\nnot only a token for the troubled generous friends
\nheld in the fists of that schizoid city like flowers,
\nbut also, Mark Van Doren,
\na poem of remembrance, a gift, a souvenir for you.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

During my master’s, I was besotted with the poet Robert Hayden. I read every one of his poems, all his prose, the critical biography on him, and the few scholarly articles available. I still think he is the most under-appreciated of great American poets. Hayden’s work had an enormous impact on me. He moved deftly…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":398,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[487,11,1181,1187,262,318,1190,486],"class_list":["post-5655","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-poetry","tag-a-ballad-of-remembrance","tag-beginners-heart","tag-britton-gildersleeve","tag-buddhism","tag-buddhist-blogs","tag-national-poetry-month","tag-poetry","tag-robert-hayden"],"yoast_head":"\nday 8, National Poetry Month ~ - Beginner's Heart<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"During my master's, I was besotted with the poet Robert Hayden. 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Years spent living on the margins - in places with exotic names and food shortages - have left her with a visceral response to folks \u2018without,\u2019 as well as a desire to live her Buddhism in an engaged fashion. She\u2019s a writer and a teacher, the former director of a federal non-profit for teachers who write. She believes that if we talk to each other, we can learn to love each other (but she's still learning how). And she believes in tea. 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