The first career retrospective by the award-winning poet Elizabeth Alexander, now available in paperback
We crave radiance in this austere world,
light in the spiritual darkness.
Learning is the one perfect religion,
its path correct, narrow, certain, straight.
—from “Allegiance”
Over twenty years, Elizabeth Alexander has become one of America’s most exciting and important poets, and her selection as the inaugural poet by President Barack Obama confirmed her place as one of the indispensable voices of our time. Crave Radiance: New and Selected Poems 1990–2010 gathers twenty pages of new poetry, along with generous selections from her previous work. The result is the definitive volume to date by this American master.
From The Venus Hottentot (1990)*
The Venus Hottentot 3
West Indian Primer 8
Ladders 9
Zodiac 10
The Dirt-Eaters 11
House Party Sonnet: '66 14
Nineteen 15
Omni-Albert Murray 16
Robeson at Rutgers 22
Van Der Zee 23
Bearden 25
Deadwood Dick 26
Painting 27
Monet at Giverny 28
Farewell to You 29
Penmanship 31
Letter: Blues 32
Boston Year 34
A Poem for Nelson Mandela 35
Today's News 36
From Body of Life (1996)*
Stravinsky in L.A. 39
The Josephine Baker Museum 40
Yolande Speaks 45
Fugue 47
The Texas Prophet 48
Talk Radio, D.C. 49
Passage 50
Summertime 52
Washington ãtude 53
Apollo 55
What I'm Telling You 56
Butter 57
Compass 58
Frank Willis 61
Family Stone 63
Six Yellow Stanzas 64
Blues 70
Affirmative Action Blues 72
Haircut 74
Judge Gets Grandma to Whip Offender 76
For Miriam 77
L.A. by Night 79
Harlem Birthday Party 80
Body of Life 82
Blues 86
Equinox 87
At the Beach 88
Cleaning Out Your Apartment 89
Tending 90
Leaving 91
After 92
From Antebellum Dream Book (2001)*
Fugue 95
Elegy 100
Overture: Watermelon City 101
Early Cinema 103
Visitor 105
Geraniums 107
Islands Number Four 108
Nat Turner Dreams of Insurrection 109
Race 110
Baby 111
Crash 112
The Toni Morrison Dreams 113
"The female seer will burn upon this pyre" 117
War 118
Peccant 119
Opiate 120
After the Gig: Mick Jagger 121
Postpartum Dream #8 122
Postpartum Dream #12: Appointment 123
The Party 125
Orange 126
Visitation 128
Feminist Poem Number One 129
Gift 130
Narrative: Ali 131
Neonatology 143
From American Sublime (2005)*
Emancipation 157
Smile 158
Tina Green 159
When 160
Five Elegies 161
Stray 166
Fried Apples 167
The Dream That I Told My Mother-in-Law 168
Black Poets Talk about the Dead 170
The African Picnic 171
Autumn Passage 173
Ars Poetica #1,002: Rally 174
Ars Poetica #17: First Afro-American Esperantist 177
Ars Poetica #28: African Leave-Taking Disorder 178
Ars Poetica #23: "Whassup G?" 179
Ars Poetica #21: Graduate Study of Literature 180
Ars Poetica #92: Marcus Garvey on Elocution 181
Ars Poetica #56: "Bullfrogs Was Falling Out of the Sky" 183
Ars Poetica #16: Lot 184
Ars Poetica #100: I Believe 185
Ars Poetica #88: Sublime 186
Amistad
Amistad 187
The Blue Whale 188
Absence 189
boy haiku 190
Poro Society 191
Approach 192
Connecticut 193
Other Cargo 194
Education 195
The Yale Men 197
Teacher 198
Translator 199
Physiognomy 201
Constitutional 203
Mende Vocabulary 204
The Girls 205
Kere's Song 206
Judge Judson 207
In Cursive 208
God 209
Waiting for Cinque to Speak 210
The Amistad Trail 211
Cinque Redux 212
The Last Quatrain 213
American Sublime 214
Tanner's Annunciation 215
From Miss Crandall's School for Young Ladies and Little Misses of Color (2007)*
Knowledge 219
Good-bye 220
Study 221
We 222
Lawyers 223
Allegiance 224
Water 225
Hunger 226
Call and Response 227
Cat 228
End 229
Julia Williams 230
New Poems
Luck 233
In D.C. 234
The Black Woman Speaks 235
Dream Book 236
Toomer 237
In the Aquarium 238
Bottle Tree 239
Hayden in the Archive 240
Poised 241
Stokely and Adam 242
In the FEMA Trailers 244
Rally 246
Praise Song for the Day 247
The Elders 249
One week later in the strange 250
Notes 253
Overview
The first career retrospective by the award-winning poet Elizabeth Alexander, now available in paperback
We crave radiance in this austere world,
light in the spiritual darkness.
Learning is the one perfect religion,
its path correct, narrow, certain, straight.
...