On the brink by Somyaa

On the brink...

... she searched as if she had been thirsty whole night

for a poem she could drink

she found out

soon enough

she is not a poet

nor was meant to be,

a witch ; 

she was not a martyr

nor a virgin,

again on a forgotten way

again on the brink...

she searched as if she had been thirsty whole night

for a poem she could drink...

- by Somyaa

Gregg Chadwick

Acadia

48"x36" oil on linen 2004

 Somyaa has paired my painting Acadia with her remarkable poem.

Daybreak in Alabama

Photo by Robert Ray/Associated Press
Francine Rollins and Rondroka Long sat amid the rubble of their neighborhood in Tuscaloosa, Alabama

Daybreak in Alabama
by Langston Hughes

When I get to be a composer
I’m gonna write me some music about
Daybreak in Alabama
And I’m gonna put the purtiest songs in it
Rising out of the ground like a swamp mist
And falling out of heaven like soft dew.
I’m gonna put some tall tall trees in it
And the scent of pine needles
And the smell of red clay after rain
And long red necks
And poppy colored faces
And big brown arms
And the field daisy eyes
Of black and white black white black people
And I’m gonna put white hands
And black hands and brown and yellow hands
And red clay earth hands in it
Touching everybody with kind fingers
And touching each other natural as dew
In that dawn of music when I
Get to be a composer
And write about daybreak
In Alabama.

Please donate to tornado relief for the South at:
American Red Cross

And please buy the poem here:
Knopf