Description:
Gwendolyn B. Bennett - Nocturnes & Other Verse
Forgotten Poets #16 / forgottenpoets.substack.com
'Nocturnes & Other Poets' [86 pages] brings together, for the first time, all of the available poems and short-stories by Harlem Renaissance poet and poetry critic Gwendolyn Bennett, published in the 1920s in prominent African American arts & culture magazines like Opportunity, The Crisis, and The Messenger (1923-28); with numerous restored illustrations by Bennett, also a well-known visual artist.
. . . . . . . . .
-: Purgation: -
You lived
and your body
Clothed the flames of earth.
Now that the fires have burned away
And left your body cold,
I tremble as I stand
Before the chiseled marble
Of your dust-freed soul.
. . . . . . . . .
-: Quatrain: -
How strange that grass should sing-
Grass is so still a thing . . .
And strange the swift surprise of snow, -
So soft it falls and slow.
. . . . . . . . . .
The Forgotten Poets Newsletter presents: new collections of out-of-print and obscure poetry, with a focus on compressed & fragmented 'free' and 'new' verse from the late-1800s & early-1900s, & the early history of English-language tanka & haiku. Verses are carefully selected & spaciously laid-out, adorned with illustrations & ornaments from the books & magazines they originally appeared in.