Gwendolyn Bennett - Nocturnes & Other Verse

<p><strong style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(15 17 17 1)>Gwendolyn B. Bennett - Nocturnes & Other Verse</strong></p><p><span style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(15 17 17 1)>Forgotten Poets #16 / forgottenpoets.substack.com</span></p><p></p><p><span style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(15 17 17 1)>'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 </span><em style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(15 17 17 1)>Opportunity</em><span style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(15 17 17 1)> </span><em style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(15 17 17 1)>The Crisis</em><span style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(15 17 17 1)> and </span><em style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(15 17 17 1)>The Messenger</em><span style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(15 17 17 1)> (1923-28); with numerous restored illustrations by Bennett also a well-known visual artist.</span></p><p></p><p><u style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(15 17 17 1)>. . . . . . . . .</u></p><p></p><p><strong style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(15 17 17 1)>-: Purgation :-</strong></p><p></p><p><span style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(15 17 17 1)>You lived</span></p><p><span style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(15 17 17 1)>and your body</span></p><p><span style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(15 17 17 1)>Clothed the flames of earth.</span></p><p></p><p><span style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(15 17 17 1)>Now that the fires have burned away</span></p><p><span style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(15 17 17 1)>And left your body cold</span></p><p><span style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(15 17 17 1)>I tremble as I stand</span></p><p><span style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(15 17 17 1)>Before the chiseled marble</span></p><p><span style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(15 17 17 1)>Of your dust-freed soul.</span></p><p></p><p><u style=color: rgba(15 17 17 1); background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1)>. . . . . . . . .</u></p><p></p><p><strong style=color: rgba(15 17 17 1); background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1)>-: Quatrain :-</strong></p><p></p><p><span style=color: rgba(15 17 17 1); background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1)>How strange that grass should sing-</span></p><p><span style=color: rgba(15 17 17 1); background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1)>Grass is so still a thing . . .</span></p><p><span style=color: rgba(15 17 17 1); background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1)>And strange the swift surprise of snow-</span></p><p><span style=color: rgba(15 17 17 1); background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1)>So soft it falls and slow.</span></p><p></p><p><u style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(15 17 17 1)>. . . . . . . . . .</u></p><p></p><p><span style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(15 17 17 1)>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.</span></p>