Taking its name from the moon’s dark plains, misidentified as seas by early astronomers, The Black Maria investigates African diasporic histories, the consequences of racism within American culture, and the question of human identity. Central to this project is a desire to recognize the lives of Eritrean refugees who have been made invisible by years of immigration crisis, refugee status, exile, and resulting statelessness. The recipient of a 2015 Whiting Award for Poetry, Girmay’s newest collection elegizes and celebrates life, while wrestling with the humanistic notion of seeing beyond: seeing violence, seeing grace, and seeing each other better.
‘to the sea’
great storage house, history
on which we rode, we touched
the brief pulse of your fluttering
pages, spelled with salt & life,
your rage, your indifference
your gentleness washing our feet,
all of you going on
whether or not we live,
to you we bring our carnations
yellow & pink, how they float
like bright sentences atop
your memory’s dark hair
Aracelis Girmay is the author of two poetry collections, Teeth and Kingdom Animalia, which won the Isabella Gardner Award and was a finalist for the NBCC Award. The recipient of a 2015 Whiting Award, she has received grants and fellowships from the Jerome, Cave Canem, and Watson foundations, as well as Civitella Ranieri and the NEA. She currently teaches at Hampshire College’s School for Interdisciplinary Arts and in Drew University’s low residency MFA program. Originally from Santa Ana, California, she splits her time between New York and Amherst, Massachusetts.
Table of Content
CONTENTS
elelegy 5
prayer & letter to the dead 7
to the sea (any) 15
“& when it happens” 16
“you are going now” 17
“hands for pleasure, hands for mending” 18
to the sea (any) 19
“black, full of language” 20
“Odysseus, his lungs full” 21
“Claim, I, to be the poet making talk” 22
“the febrile & opal” 23
to the sea near lampedusa 24
luam to the dead 25
luam/ asa luam 26
luam, who says to the dead 27
“inside the sea, there is more” 28
“The black-eyed woman” 29
“to be near sea is to gleam” 30
luam in the sea, to the survivors 31
luam remembers massawa 32
luam to her sibling 33
luam cleaning house 34
the luams speak of god 35
luam, new york 36
luam, asmera 37
luam, umbertide, asmera, new york 38
“Look! In another poem you are” 40
luam mending clothes 41
luam, new york 42
luam, monterchi, italy 43
to the sea 44
“Why not, in addition, tell” 45
“strange earth, strange” 46
to the sea 47
to the sea 48
“praise the water, now” 49
[collective messages] 50
“I love the azucena so bring them to you” 51
the luams 52
on poetry & history 53
the black maria 54
The Black Maria 55
Third Estrangement, With an Ending Loosely After Jonathan Ferrell 56
The Woodlice, Fourth Estrangement 57
The Figeaters, Fifth Estrangement 58
First Estrangement 59
Moon for Aisha 60
Cooley High, Fifth Estrangement 62
The Beauty of the World, Tenth Estrangement 64
Second Estrangement 65
Third Estrangement 66
Fourth Estrangement, With a Petition for the Reunion of Jonathan & George Jackson 67
About the author
Aracelis Girmay was honored with a 2015 Whiting Award for Poetry. She is the author of two poetry collections,
Teeth (Curbstone, 2007) and
Kingdom Animalia (BOA Editions, 2011), which won the Isabella Gardner Poetry Award and was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award. She is also the author/illustrator of the collage-based picture book
changing, changing (Braziller, 2005). Most recently, Girmay’s poetry and essays have been published in
Granta, Black Renaissance Noire, and PEN America, among other places. She has received grants and fellowships from the Jerome, Cave Canem, and Watson foundations, as well as Civitella Ranieri and the NEA. She is on the faculty of Hampshire College’s School for Interdisciplinary Arts and Drew University’s low residency M.F.A. program. Originally from Santa Ana, California, she splits her time between New York and Amherst, Massachusetts.
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