Top 5 xcix: E. Ethelbert Miller

A National Poetry Month celebration of D.C.'s own E. Ethelbert Miller

1. Everywhere was the decay of how we sound. Someone said it reminded them of the time Sonny Rollins disappeared. People spread stories of how the air would never be the same or forgive. It was the end of civilization and nowhere could one hear the first notes of A Love Supreme. It was as if John Coltrane had never been born. (From The Ear Is an Organ Made for Love )
2. I hear my Momma's voice saying / Boy, always remember to wash / your hands but always remember / you can't wash your hands from / everything. (From Looking for Omar )
3. on the top shelf?/of the closet /?is the hat my father / wears on special occasions /?it rests next to the large jar / ?he saves pennies in (From “The Things in Black Men’s Closets” )
4. your mother she named you after the river / cause of its beauty and mystery / just like my mother named me nevada / cause she didn’t know where it was (From “Mississippi” )
5. “I remember getting on the Metro a few years ago, there was a young brother sitting close to me and he had a poem. A few stops later, his buddy got on. They were excited and started talking about their work. I’m listening and it’s some tired stuff. But here are two black guys who didn’t know each other that well—they’d met at a reading or something—talking about poetry. They couldn’t have been more than eighteen or nineteen years old, but here they were, two young black men, not arguing or shooting at each other. They had a love for language that was bringing them together. That’s priceless.” (From a Mosaic Magazine interview )