I found an anthology of Black Poets - MY NAME IS BLACK in a book sale. It is a used book and published during 1974. I believe its original owner was also a black- Gail Thompson, as it was scribbled on it. Some poems which I liked:
My name is Black
My name is Black. I am black,
I live in a white world.
When I go to bed my sheet
is black like me.
-Ronald Weathers
I am waiting
I am waiting for the sun
to shine
On the earth and case a glow
I am waiting for people to
greet me everywhere I go.
I am waiting for war to cease
And crime and grief and pain
I am waiting for us to unite
Where no one man shall reign.
I am waiting when color
won't matter
When it's always better to give
I am waiting when all shall be happy
And all together live.
-Vanessa C.Howard
Like Me
They ask: what is Africa like?
I tell them:Africa is like me! Black
Big
Complex
Creative
magic
underdeveloped wealth
and not yet free
-Ted Joans
Misery
Misery is when you heard
on the radio the the neighborhood'you live in is a slum but
you always thought it was home.
-Langston Hughes
The Distant Drum
I am not a metaphor or symbol.
This you hear is not the wind in the trees,
Nor a cat being maimed in the street.
I am being maimed in the street.
It is I who weep, laugh, feel pain or joy,
Speak this because I exist.
This is my voice,
These words are my words,
My mouth speaks them,
My hand writes -
I am a poet.
It is my fist you hear
Beating against your ear.
-Calvin C. Hernton
