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AFRICAN BURIAL GROUND
In New York City, May of 1991
Construction of a federal building had begun
As excavators started removing stones
They dug up a graveyard full of human bones
Archaeologists were brought in to exhume the graves
And discovered these were the remains of African slaves
Slaves that cleared shorelines
And built New York's first roads
Incurring premature deaths
From carrying crushing workloads
The information gathered from this discovery
Will help us to secure our place in New York's history;
Listen to the ringing of the old church bell
As we bid our forefathers, a proper farewell
African Americans dance in the streets
To the thunderous sound of pounding drumbeats
Lifting our voices in a mighty chorus
we pay tribute to our ancestors before us
Individual coffins carved by hand
Were fittingly commissioned from the homeland
Their bones were reburied, their souls finally free
On the fourth of October 2003.
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I just reread this after a long absence. It is much stronger than I indicated with my first critique. Your end-rhyme fits so comfortably into the flow that the reader hardly notices through the eyes alone. Ears; love to hear you read it.
In fact, I'd like to withdraw my criticism of the line mentioned in my first critique: you say what you have to say directly, the language is compact and yet it is not sharp or strident.
Well done. |
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| You manage to entertain and inform, which is no mean feat. I hope to learn from you. |
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| I hadn't heard about this before. Well written and very informative. J |
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| I've just been to Gambia and Senegal. You can't help thinking about slavery there. When you meet the Mandinca (spelling?) it's hard to conceive how Europeans could have done that to them. I know it was the bad old days, and Europeans were pretty terrible to each other too, but when you think of what was done you realise how nastey human beings are. I asked a guy how Gambians feel about black American tourists (they come to the village of Kunte Kinte) and he smiled saying "They're American so they think they know it all, but we can teach them some things!", and he's so right - he described his life as "stugglin'", but his spirit, his warmth, his morality (Muslim) and his ability to understand without judgement, to give when he has so little, humbled me. Your poem is very moving. You say "to secure our place in New York's history" but it's more than that - it can be argued that the Industrial Revolution could only have taken place because of slavery. When I remember my new friends in Gambia I wonder how I can feel proud of my "civilization". |
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Slendah,
I am sooooo with you....On point imagery...The infusion of history is :)))) |
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