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Column 927

Land Ho

12.26.2022

This poem will be my state­ment for a rather abrupt and unex­pect­ed end­ing to my role as the edi­tor of Amer­i­can Life in Poet­ry. The poem is one of resilience — the resilience of my ances­tors and those that car­ry the fact of the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade as a defin­ing moment in our mak­ing. It is also a poem about resilience, about look­ing hope­ful­ly, even if with some cau­tion, to the future, and I believe that Mar­guerite Har­rold and Ber Ane­na who have been labor­ing with me to make Amer­i­can Life in Poet­ry a week­ly occa­sion, share this spir­it. My great hope is that the lega­cy left by Ted Koos­er will be con­tin­ued into the future.

Land Ho

I cannot speak the languages
spoken in that vessel,
cannot read the beads
promising salvation.

I know this only,
that when the green of land
appeared like light
after the horror of this crossing,

we straightened our backs
and faced the simplicity
of new days with flame.
I know I have the blood of survivors

coursing through my veins;
I know the lament of our loss
must warm us again and again
down in the belly of the whale,

here in the belly of the whale
where we are still searching for homes.
We sing laments so old, so true,
then straighten our backs again.

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We do not accept unsolicited submissions

We do not accept unsolicited submissions. American Life in Poetry is made possible by The Poetry Foundation (www.poetryfoundation.org), publisher of Poetry magazine. It is also supported by the Department of English at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Poem copyright ©1996 by Kwame Dawes, “Land Ho” from Requiem (Peepal Tree Press Ltd., 1996) Introduction copyright © 2024 by The Poetry Foundation.