The Fresno Poems: "Two Poets in the Park"

For Sherley Ann Williams 

Aug 25, 1944--July 6, 1999

We sat in Central Park, NYC winter '97

70 degrees in February

we met the night before after 17 years of silence

high school lovers should always be friends

memory of precious times

what a blessing sitting in Central Park

talk of family friends poets poems

you know Ntozake was

Baraka has

Skip Gates got a 

about us nothing

we didn't go there

after 17 years of silence

we sat still

II

My homegirl from the hood Fresno

projects cotton grape fields

Fink White playground

Columbia Elementary

Edison High

drama club honor society

full of passion with her love

screaming scratching

aborted child at my request

to my eternal regret

Mama said that's the girl you ought to marry

she's smart!

she never married

was blue about this

said a bad relationship was better than no relationship

poet 

critic

novelist

professor

nobody better

two poets in the park

now there is only one

peace my sister my darling.

--Marvin X

7/15/99

from Land of My Daughters, poems, Marvin X, Black Bird Press, Berkeley, 2005.

Black Bird Press News and Review

Black Bird Press News & Review

---

• Afghanistan and Echoes of 1989
• New Year's Day in the American Slave System
• Governor Pardons Wilmington 10, Free at Last!
• Marvin X Speaks on the Transition of Poet Jayne Cortez
• Navigating the Perilous Mental Landscape
• Marvin X Speaks in Fresno at the African American Museum
• Old Men Drive Alone
• Angie Stone - Makings of You
• Black Bird Press News & Review: Marvin X's Great Grandfather, Former Slave
• For Jayne Cortez in Memoriam
• Jayne Cortez In Memoriam
• Carl Dix on the American Revolution 2013
• Poet Jayne Cortez Joins Ancestors
• Ishmael Reed on Guns, Race and Marvin X on Who Asks the Negro
• America/China Invades Africa
• Ngugi Wa Thiongo and Chinue Achebe on the Psycholinguistic Crisis of the African
• Black Bird Press News & Review: Alik Shahadah on the Psycholinguistic Crisis of the North American African
• Black Bird Press News & Review: Invite Marvin X for Black History Month 2013
• Black Bird Press News & Review: The Psycholinguistic Crisis of the North American African
• Marvin X Returns to the Source: Fresno, California
• Psycholinguistic Crisis of the North American African--Original Essay by Marvin X
• Dr. Hare on the Psycholinguistic Crisis of the North American African
• OAKLAND'S MENTORING MOVEMENT MIXER
• In the Crazy House Called America--The Grand Denial
• What I want for Xmas

The Fresno Poems: "Date with my Son"

Again the vines orchards
Amtrak to the valley
hesitation fear
the love the hate
return to old battlefield for righteousness justice
battle I didn't need to fight
death of warriors who battled beside me
Pat and Barbara, mothers who blessed me
disciplined children
never raised my voice with them, ever
never whipped them
wives now gone from my life
girlfriends growing fat like myself
insane from valley heat











again the vines orchards
coming winter
my sick son
calls me to valley
Nadar Ali my "fish" for the NOI takes me
to find my son
he is not home
strange signs in window
jesus and others
Later I taxi back to find him with candle burning
blows out candle
we go to motel
talk all night
surprised at his sanity
talks of Fulbright days in Egypt and Damascus
Syrian secret police question him five times daily
was he a prayer rug
visits American embassy
was he spy for the devil
did CIA take his mind
was he Manchurian Candidate
do not take his mad rantings serious
have a sense of humor he says
bear with him he pleads to all who love him
we all love him
we know the power of his mind
refuses help from my doctor friends
they're sick too he says
they need to help nigguhs in the Bay
I listen learn
he drifts from sanity to insanity
night turns day
he lay beside me
my 35 year old baby boy
snoring beyond loud
I dream of someone snoring
he is up again
ranting into the sunrise
the Syrians interrogate him
one smokes a cigar
looking like Saddam Hussain
what did he do at the American embassy
why is he studying books about Syria
what does he think of President Hafez Asad
Does he support the views of the Baath Party
Why is he hanging around those filthy Palestinians
It's morning now. He wants to go home
Wants money for child support I missed 35 years ago
He wants trust fund
If I leave him one he will seek healing
he promises
for security he packs stack of my books and CDs to sell
promises not to give me any money from the sales
will keep it all
calls me bitch
more properly bee-ach
says I taught him to talk like this
I say we must stay on father-son plane
not brother/brother
he laughs
says shut up beech
we embrace
he exits
I love him
I know he loves me
yes, even in his insanity.
--Marvin X
10/29/99

from Land of My Daughters, poems, Marvin X, Black Bird Press, 2005.

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Dear Marvin X, A poem for my teacher

Dear Marvin X

It is 2013

the fire is low

and knowing has never been needed more

we need knowing like a dope fiend need a hit

but a dope fiend is dedicated

we just in the dark

wont reach for the light

wont reach

just down here on the ground

needing to know

you know

you tell

you cant be quiet you know so much

are you tired because we still refuse to know

is the knowing heavy

does it hurt to be the smartest 

nigger in the room

here with us with a flash light

and that damn tireless pen

but still you cant get

us home

you think we too far gone?

you agree with your mother yet?

living gets lonely

niggers die

niggers wont know

niggers go crazy

niggers wont know

niggers drink henny & baileys and drive alone

running from knowing

that niggers got to know

so I pray for old men

who drive alone

and the wonder of them

here 

knowing

--Ayodele Nzinga, Ph.D.

Ayodele is Marvin X's top student, having worked with him since 1981 when she directed his play In the Name of Love when he taught drama at Oakland's Laney College. In 1998 she joined his Recovery Theatre and directed his play One Day in the Life, also performed in the drama that is known as the longest running African American drama in northern California. Ayodele now has her own theatre, the Lower Bottom Playaz in West Oakland. 

The Fresno Poems: "Secret Life of a Poet"

photo Ken Johnson

Secret Life of a Poet

Sometimes he claimed city

of it loved it

energy diversity creativity

but in the DNA of his mind

fields of cotton grape vines

cow patches orchards

in rivers of his mind

creeks ditches canals

was pleased riding AmTrak down valley

Tracy Modesto Turlock  Merced Chowchilla Madera

highway 99

Fresno summers

Grandma's hands

don't let me have to give you a backhand slap boy!

mosquitoes

distant whistle freight train

crickets

devouring watermelons late night

D.D. brought from El Centro

ole cousin D.D.

walking hard in half Wellingtons

talking shit

James Earl Jones voice

classic truck driver

ever on the road

D.D. my dirt hero

cow dung man

chicken shit man

midnight sun man

110 degrees at 1am

Valley of death fog

let governor have ten car accident

just a country boy

lemons off trees

turn on well water at night

irrigate rows Mama said

don't be lazy boy

wouldn't have you for a man

you don't need no wife

you need maid secretary mistress

Mama knows best

Brother Tommy don't want eggs from chicken coop

wants eggs from Safeway

he Safeway ass nigguh

somewhere playing safe right now

me country boy

learned city blues.

from Love and War, poems, Marvin X, Black Bird Press, 1995.

In the name of love, a poem for Fresno

photo Ken Johnson

This is my land.
I own this land in the name of love
land of my ancestors
land of nat turner
land of sojourner truth
land of harriet tubman
I claim all of it
every inch of it
in the name of love
I claim the corn the peppers the almonds the peas
the raisins the cotton I claim
in the name of love
in the valley heat love is on the vines
hot love in the valley of my love
hot dripping love
I am the the vines the grapes
in the name of love
I return to the corn
there is love in the corn
all the valley is my love
the orchards the cows horses
I am this I am this love....
--Marvin X
from In the Name of Love, In the Land of My Daughters, Black Bird Press, 2005