Sweet Solitude

I. From Another Black Voice:

A Different Drummer (1988)

The Black Man Speaks of Rivers, Part 2: A Tribute to Langston Hughes

Acquaintances

The Black Madonna

The Anniversary

The Country Preacher’s Folk Prayer

God’s Gender

The Mansion

By the Side of the Road

Race

Elegy for Therman B. O’Daniel


II. From The Beauty of Blackness (1989)

The Beauty of Blackness

Transition

Sleepless Now

Cat

When I Heard from the Tax Man

A Child’s Play

A Black Man’s Song

Spring

To an Apostle of Peace


III. From I Fly Like a Bird (1992)

Birds

Black Woman

His Professor

Overcharged

Drinking

And Want No More

Garden Party

What Are You, Life?

Grief

We Mourn a Sweet Soul


IV. From The Whipping Song (1993)

The Whipping Song

Peace Will Come

For My Forefathers

The Street Man

Love Should Grow, Not Wither

Rain

A Plea for Peace

Before the Death of Dad

Winds of Change


V. From For the Love of Freedom (2000)

For the Love of Freedom

The Black Hair

Why Are You Laughing?

The Saint

A Song for the Black Woman


VI. From Vintage (1995)

There Will Be Blacks in Heaven

Strangers


VII. From Pure Light (1996)

Pure Light

Calling All Black Men

Words

Your Life Is Over for You If

Sunrise

In Praise of Shoeshines

So Happy

Innocence in Black and White

Budget Cuts

I Fly Away

How Great You Are


VIII. From Neglecting the Flowers (1997)

Black and Beautiful

Rapping My Way Home from an English Conference at Hunter College on March 22, 1997

Reverend Hotair

Neglecting the Flowers

Like Douglass

Bury Yourself Now

On the Death of Mothers

Tongue

Burp

To Mephistopheles

Come, Prince of Peace

Good Manners

Love


IX. From Lilacs in Spring (1998)

I Came, I Saw, I Dreamed

The Country Club in the Academy

Lilacs in Spring

Song for a Beautiful Lady

Boss Hogg

Thank You, Abe!


X. From Elisabeth and Other Poems (1999)

The Good Queen Bess

Mother Africa

Working on the Farm in 1947

Marry This Poem

Departure

Embden Pond

Robert Lewis (Our Samoyed)


XI. From Jazz After Dinner (2007)

Jazz After Dinner

And When I Die

I Am a Black Man

Black Philosophy

Morning After Morning

Forgiveness


XII. New Poems (2008)

Heifer

Picnic

What I Need Is

I Want to Live While You Love Me

Highway to Love

I Do Love You

Brothers

Characteristics

Claudia, Back Home

Elegy for Emmanuel

Grapes

Today

Deacon

The Vision of America

The Geese

God’s Glory

The Thought

I Shall Pray

Acknowledgments
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