This morning I came across two items that made me think about the great but humble Gwendolyn Brooks, who was the first African American to receive a Pulitzer Prize for poetry, and who later in life was named Poetry Consultant to the Library of Congress. (I met her while she served in that post and saw that she was indeed humble.)
The first of the two items I came across this morning was a book titled The Essential Gwendolyn Brooks, edited by Elizabeth Alexander and published by the Library of America.
The second item I came across was the poem below that I wrote years ago as a tribute to Gwendolyn Brooks.
Her many works describe African American city life. In some works she spoke out against racism and the favored treatment of light-skinned Blacks. In others she explored the roles of mother and father, and husband and wife.
Gwendolyn Brooks taught poetry in universities and sponsored writers' workshops in Chicago,where she lived with her husband and children, and she sponsored poetry contests in prisons. She read and spoke in taverns and other public places, as well as in academic circles.
TO GWENDOLYN BROOKS
(Poet and Writer, 1917 - 2000)
Amazing
graceful
long distance runner
you're a teller of truth
in your powerful works.
Regal pen woman
imperial bard
the lines in your poems
are purple rays.
Your works, so brilliant
are the sun.
Shine on me
oh purple sun.
Won't you shine on me?
--- vwg
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