scott williams' poetry

Poetry by BONVIBRE PROSIM

Contents:

1001 SLOW METER POEMS.
Nigga What Couldnt Fine No Work (a prose poem).
Two Nerudians: Odes to a Sister and Waking Sleep.
The Nine-Sided Diamond (dedicated to my mother).

The following was conceived during a local poetry reading:

While I'M UP HERE, I'M GONNA SEARCH FOR
1001 OF MY FAVORITE SLOW METER POEMS

I'm gonna read here tonight.

I'm gonna read and read here tonight.

I'm gonna read and read and read

and read and read and read

and read here tonight.

I'm gonna read beyond sipped java.

Read beyond drowsy eyes.

Read beyond too long.

Read beyond presidential lies.

Read until global warming.

Read until you think we're married and ask for divorce.

Read until global cooling.

Read so long I'll be in your dreams reading.

Read so long that stopping and starting are the same.

Read so long that the English language will find a NEW word for the old word that was gay.

Read so long that you will forget and remember and forget and remember and forget again and ... hate my name.

RIGHT NOW I amm gonnaa reeead 1001 ofvvv myyy faaaavoooriiiite slooow meeeeeterrrrrr poems.

©bonvibre & daughters 1/19/96

Nigga What Couldnt Fine No Work

Nigga couldnt fine no work. So he burnt him a 7 n' 11, wound up wit' 7 tuh 11.
Ex-con Nigga couldnt fine no work. So he go tuh community collitch.
Get him a White Clothes AD.
AD Nigga couldnt fine no work. So he go tuh reglar collitch.
Get him a White Speak BA.
BS Nigga couldnt fine no work. So he go back tuh university.
Get him a White Smell MS.
MS Nigga couldnt fine no work. So he go back tuh school.
Get him a White Shit PhD.
PhD Nigga still couldnt fine no work. So he burnt him a 7 n' 11, wound up wit' 7 tuh 11.

Nigga come out, n' he go on Talk Shows talkin' nigga life is hard.
Talk Show Nigga fuck TV white womans good 'n dey get him in da TV shows.
Nex' he in coupla movies playin' bad nice nigga wit a job.
(but he always get killed first or sump'n.)
He rich now n' want stay rich so he get him a Republican Degree.

One day, Republican Nigga steppin out him bad bad Bentley seen him a Nigga what couldnt fine no work.
He tole him his own story but No-job Nigga say,"Dat's too hard."
An' he cole cocked Bentley Nigga, take his money, an' butt-banged him.
Took his white wife too (she like bad niggas).
Together dey shoot dat white Nigga 'n get away free cause you know da cops say,
"Its jus' niggas wit niggas 'n dat white woman she a nigga too.
'sides he dont need fine no work now."

2 Nerudians: Odes to a Sister and Waking Sleep

Odes to a Sister

my sister, how beautiful to follow the path
of your big footprints; how beautiful
to see within your eyes fragments of Pharoah.
Everywhere closing my eyes imagining
how beautiful your brown greets one's morn, and
sinks one's night into the fragrance of shadow.

my sister, how beautiful to see running emotions
breaking as waves at the shore formed
by your feet and my hands, by your ears
and my nose, by your breasts and my chest.
How beautiful to hear the spray of your voice
in the recess of my conch.

Waking Sleep

As the moon fills, it is hard to tell if I close my eyes, or if the sandman sighs, or if day opened a new I - my flitting costume of this moment, this hour tucking me in this day.

THE NINE-SIDED DIAMOND

dedicated to my mother's career as a Civic and Political Leader, Mathematician, Musician, and Educator, especially in Continuing Education

I've often longed to see my mother in the doorway ...
sitting at the table, reading the book, playing the piano.

I've often longed to see my mother in the doorway ...
of my kitchen, my home, the classroom, the office.

I've often longed to see my mother in the doorway ...
And I can, for she is in my mind,
400 miles away,
a nine-sided diamond
with a nine-sided life
facing her way
a new way
shining the old.

visitors to all my writing pages

Want to see which authors inspire my work? Try inspirations
Return to bonVìér's home page?

Return to bonVìbré's central writing page?