City Beautiful (Ishmael Reed Publishing

by Tennessee Reed

Overview

Tennessee Reed compiled her writing from 1998 to 2006 in City Beautiful, her fourth published poetry collection. Among her experiences living a poet's life since the age of five were 1994 poetry workshops and readings in Berlin and Bonn, Germany, where she was youngest person ever presented by the United States Information Agency's Arts America Program. This two-part volume features a series of poems inspired by animals, "Animals & Others," originally part of her 2005 Master of Fine Art's thesis project at Mills College.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781425714642
Publisher:	Xlibris Corporation
Publication date:	09/28/2006
Pages:	108
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.26(d)

Read an Excerpt

THE CITY BEAUTIFUL

Five hundred feet high
and five hundred thousand square feet wide
of polished brass, marble, wrought iron,
carved stone and Manchurian wood
City Hall towers over San Francisco's Civic Center
with 24-karat gold leaf shimmering on its dome
while homeless citizens
shuffle around the public library
and the Civic Center BART station
in muddy blue jeans and black sweatshirts
dappled with pigeon droppings
Workers rush from BART and the MUNI metro
and climb the grand marble rotunda staircase
to their City Hall offices
in their expensive DKNY and Ralph Lauren suits
while homeless people push all their belongings in shopping carts
and talk about buying booze at the convenience store
on the corner of Market and Eighth Streets
Students catch elevators to the History Room
at the San Francisco Public Library
while security officers harass homeless women
trying to use the restroom
Parents and children
dressed up to see "The Nutcracker"
at the War Memorial Opera House
another fancy marble, gold, and red velvet confection
pass by homeless people sitting on rotting wood benches
in the United Nations Plaza,
freezing and wet from the rain
At City Hall's opening day ceremony
protestors shouted, "Food, not gold leaf."