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.