On April 14, 1978, while teaching at Creighton University, I
wrote this poem for the Creighton University African American Student
Association’s “Recognition Night.” As I
prepare to do a blessing for the Southern Illinois Black Pre-Commencement
Ceremony this spring (May 6, 2017), I find that this poem still has some
strength to share. And the time is always
appropriate to hear Mahalia Jackson declare, “I’m falling and rising, but I’m
on my way....”
Mark the eternally
Redeeming fact
when
the shadow suffocates
your hope
act
past the lightning terror
of the demon days
unremembered passage
from home to hell
shackled
mute of drum
fashioning banquets from
glacial wrongs
Eden was
redeemed in songs
an arthritic alien
hungering greed ripped
families apart
the soul
was mastered by the shadow’s
need
to deny and
shatter
to garble and grind
truth into ashes
the verdict of death:
make them blind
transfer
the blanket of the crime
to the shaking shoulders
of the bent and broken
let the shadow haunt and
terrify
let all decency be deprived
until freedom
spoke in
the raining of a gun
the delusion of the shadow
was seen as fog
stinging fear retreated
and the sweat-tasting hymn
of jubilee
caught the rhythm
of the drum
in spite of death
still we come
we choose
to shed the curse laid
on our back
and when
the shadow threatens
act
