Home > Work > Neon Vernacular: New and Selected Poems
1 " I am this space my body believes in. "
― Yusef Komunyakaa , Neon Vernacular: New and Selected Poems
2 " Foolhearted mindreader,help us see howthe heart begs,how fangs of opprobrium possess our eyes. "
3 " My doors enter from the sidestreet,my windows painted basement black,my mouth kisses the blues harp,my heart hides like noteslocked in a cedar chest. "
4 " Inside my skin,loving you, I am this spacemy body believes in.— Yuself Komunyakaa, from “Unnatural State of the Unicorn,” Neon Vernacular: New and Selected Poems. (Wesleyan University Press 1993) "
5 " Say something about real love.Yes, true love—more thanparted lips, than parted legsin sorrow’s darkroom of potash& blues. Let the brain stumblefrom its hidingplace, from its cell block,to the edge of oblivionto come to itself, sharp-tonguedas a boar’s grin in summer moss—Yusef Komunyakaa, from “Safe Subjects,”Neon Venacular: New and Selected Poems (Wesleyan University Press, 1993) "
6 " The Way the Cards Fall "Why did you stay awayso long? I’ve buried anotherhusband, since I last saw youholding to the horizon.I hear where you now liveit snows year-round.The pear & apple treeshave even missed you–dead branches scatteredabout like war. Come closer,my eyes have grown night-dim.Across the field white boxesof honeybees silent as dirt,silent as your missentpostcards. Eveningsunlight’s faded my hair,the old stable’s slouchedto the ground. I dug a holefor that calico, Cyclops,two years ago. Nowmilkweed & blackberriesare keepers of the cornfield.That’s how the cards fall;& Anna, that beautiful girlyou once loved enoughto die over & over again for,now lives in New Orleanson both sidesof Bourbon Street. "