Poem-a-Day - "Write in this vein. In this terror."

November 8, 2023

David Drake, also known as “Dave the Potter,” was born in c. 1800, possibly to parents who had trained as potters in West Africa, as Atlantic slave traders frequently kidnapped skilled laborers from villages. David was one of forty known enslaved potters working in or near Edgefield between 1815 and 1880, but he was the only one who signed and dated his pots. David likely began to sign and write inscriptions, usually in the form of rhyming couplets, on the shoulders and sides of some of his glazed pots around 1840.

Read verses by David, newly added to our archive, with thanks to University of South Carolina Press.

“[I, made this Jar,]”
“[I made this Jar = cash]”
“[Give me silver or; either Gold]”
“[This noble Jar – will hold]”
“[Ladys & gentlemens Shoes]”
“[I wonder where is all my relation]”
“[horses mules and hogs]”
“[the fourth of July – is Surely come]”
“[I saw a leppard]”

“America failed itself by failing to value the fullness of who enslaved people were. Dave the Potter’s fragments are slivers of this genius, and for this we have to be grateful. For those of us with the opportunity to restore what has been erased, he is a gift, a promise; every piece of ceramic work that has survived represents this possibility, this hope.”

—Kwame Dawes, “Vessels for Taking Us Home,” reprinted from Praise Songs for Dave the Potter: Art and Poetry for David Drake (University of Georgia Press, 2023), edited by P. Gabrielle Foreman.

more at poets.org

Read poems inspired by David Drake and his legacy from Praise Songs for Dave the Potter: Art and Poetry for David Drake:

“Slavery’s Slippery Touch” by P. Gabrielle Foreman
“Deepest Pot” by Glenis Redmond
“Notes in the Margin” by Glenis Redmond
“Jarring” by Glenis Redmond

“Being a Black man from Edgefield, like David Drake, there is a kinship of clay that I feel obliged to protect. For all the collecting and curation, there’s something missing from the exhibitions and well-lit cases in big cities. The glaze still glows on the jugs, and those adorned with faces grimace or smile or frown, but who’s truly listening to what they’re saying or what the ancestors meant for us to feel?”

—J. Drew Lanham, “Kinship of Clay,” published in the 2023 spring-summer issue of American Poets, the biannual journal of the Academy of American Poets.

more at poets.org

Read ekphrastic poems inspired by the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum’s exhibit, “Going Dark: The Contemporary Figure at the Edge of Visibility,” on view until April 7, 2024.

“Thirteen Ways of Looking” by Ama Codjoe
“If They Come in the Morning” by Ama Codjoe
“Trans Study: Untitled 4 (Facial Expression)” by Cameron Awkward-Rich

“a bright future coming
toward us, we thought, to bathe us
in its light like water”

—“The Subjunctive”

Steve Bellin-Oka is the author of Instructions for Seeing a Ghost (University of North Texas Press, 2020), winner of the 2019 Vassar Miller Prize in Poetry. A Tulsa Artist Fellow in poetry and translation, he is also a research fellow at the Oklahoma Center for the Humanities. Read and listen to a Q&A with Bellin-Oka about his Poem-a-Day curatorial approach.

more at poets.org

#PoetryNearYou Pick of the Week

The Guggenheim Museum hosts Poetry Is Not a Luxury, a day-long gathering, curated by 2023 Poet-in-Residence Ama Codjoe, where poets and artists will share readings, panels, and performances that express Audre Lorde’s conviction that “poetry is not a luxury.” Saturday, November 11, at Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum (1071 Fifth Avenue, New York, New York) from 1 to 5 p.m. EST. Free with RSVP. (Sponsored)

The Poet-in-Residence program is presented by the Guggenheim in collaboration with the Academy of American Poets.

Ambroggio Prize and Landon Translation Award

We are accepting submissions for the 2024 Ambroggio Prize, a $1,000 publication prize given for a book-length poetry manuscript originally written in Spanish and with an English translation, and the 2024 Harold Morton Landon Translation Award, which is a $1,000 award that recognizes the work of a translator for a poetry collection translated from any language into English and published in 2023. Submissions will be accepted through February 15, 2024.

more at poets.org

Treehouse Climate Action Poem Prize

Established in 2019 with generous support from Treehouse Investments, the Treehouse Climate Action Poem Prize is given to honor exceptional poems that help readers recognize the gravity of the vulnerable state of our environment. The prize will honor three poets. First place will receive $1,000; second place, $750; and third place, $500. Submissions are accepted from September 15, 2023, through November 15, 2023. The judges are poet Elizabeth Bradfield and climate scientist Kate Marvel, PhD.

more at poets.org

The Academy of American Poets in New York, New York, is seeking a full-time associate content producer & editor, development & membership manager, and director of development.
The Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown, Massachusetts, is seeking a full-time fellowship director and full-time artist services manager. Apply by November 15.
Oklahoma State University is seeking a full-time, tenure-track assistant professor in creative writing-poetry beginning in August 2024. Apply by November 22.
The Harlem Educational Activities Fund, Inc. in New York, New York, is seeking a part-time grant writer. To apply, send a resume and writing sample (cover letter, previous grant application) to development@heaf.org.

Revisit last week’s Poem-a-Day selections with us on Poets.org:

October 29: “Chansons Innocentes II” by E. E. Cummings
October 30: “Saturday, April 17, 2010 12:49 am” by Cristina Rivera Garza
October 31: “The Opposite of Abandonment” by Alexis Aceves Garcia
November 1: “Injury Room” by Katie Ford
November 2: “Galleria Ode” by Patrick Phillips
November 3: “Cold War” by Randall Mann
November 4: “Sippokni Sia” by Winnie Lewis Gravitt

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