CELEBRATING BLACK HISTORY MONTH ONE POET AT A TIME: ALICE WALKER

ALL THIS MONTH OF FEB. IT'S BLACK HISTORY MONTH AND I HERE AT LIFE IN WORDS WILL BE SHOWCASING AFRICAN AMERICAN POETS.

ALICE WALKER

ALICE MALSENIOR WALKER WAS BORN FEB. 9 1944. SHE IS A TRUE ICON TO THE WRITTEN WORD. SHE HAS WRITTEN MANY BOOKS. 18 NOVELS AND SHORT STORY COLLECTIONS TOTAL. SHE HAS ALSO WRITTEN 10 POETRY BOOKS. ALSO 11 NON-FICTION BOOKS. OF HER MOST ACCLAIMED NOVEL WOULD BE THE COLOR PURPLE WHICH SHE WON THE PULITZER PRIZE FOR FICTION. THE BOOK WOULD GO ON TO BE MADE INTO A WONDERFUL MOVIE.

MRS. WALKER IS A SELF-DECLARED FEMINIST AND WOMANIST. THE WOMANIST IS A WORD SHE MADE UP FOR WOMEN OF COLOR TO SEPARATE THE ASPECT OF FEMINIST AND ALSO THE STRUGGLE TO BE A WOMAN OF COLOR. IN 1965 SHE GRADUATED FROM SARAH LAWRENCE COLLEGE BY NEW YORK CITY. MRS. WALKER BECAME VERY INTERESTED IN THE U.S. CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT. SHE MOVED BACK TO THE SOUTH WHERE SHE WAS BORN AND TOOK UP THE CAUSE FOR VOTER REGISTRATION, WELFARE RIGHTS CAMPAIGNS AND ALSO WORKING WITH CHILDREN PROGRAMS IN MISSISSIPPI. WHILE SHE LIVED IN MISSISSIPPI SHE WAS HARASSED AND WAS ALSO GIVEN DEATH THREATS BY THE KU KLUX KLAN, THIS DID NOT BOTHER HER FOR SHE FOUGHT FOR HER RIGHTS AND STOOD STRONG IN HER BELIEFS.

SHE PUBLISHED AN ARTICLE IN 1975 THAT WAS FOCUS POINT IN BRINGING BACK THE WONDER OF WRITER ZORA NEALE HURSTON WHO HAD BEEN FORGOTTEN ABOUT IN THE BOOK WORLD. HURSTON WAS AN AMERICAN FOLKLORIST WHO MADE HER MARK IN THE HARLEM RENAISSANCE ERA AND ALSO WROUGHT THE BOOK THEIR EYES WERE WATCHING GOD IN 1937. MRS. HURSTON HAS BEEN LISTED AS ONE OF THE 100 GREATEST AFRICAN AMERICANS. THROUGH RESEARCH MRS. WALKER AND HER FRIEND CHARLOTTE D. HUNT FOUND THE UNMARKED HIDDEN GRAVE OF THIS MASTER WRITER OF WRITTEN WORD IN FT. PIERCE FLORIDA. WALKER AND HUNT PAID OUT OF THERE OWN MONEY TO GIVE HER A HEADSTONE ON THE GRAVE SITE FOR SHE WOULD NOT BE FORGOTTEN ABOUT.

MRS. WALKER IS A TRUE ACTIVIST AND A HARD BEAUTIFUL AMAZING WOMAN, WRITER AND MOST OF ALL A POET. SHE CAPTURES THE BEAUTY OF WRITTEN WORD AND SHOWCASES THE STRUGGLE AND ART AND CRAFT OF WRITTEN WORD. MOST ALL HER WORK SHOWCASES THE STRUGGLES OF BLACKS, MAINLY WOMEN, THE FIGHT AGAINST RACIST AND SEXIST CULTURE AND A VIOLENT CULTURE. WHEN SHE WON HER PULITZER PRIZE FOR FICTION FOR THE COLOR PURPLE SHE WAS THE FIRST BLACK WOMAN TO EVER WIN. ON DEC. 6TH 2006 CALIFORNIA PLACED HER IN THE CALIFORNIA HALL OF FAME LOCATED AT THE CALIFORNIA MUSEUM FOR HISTORY, WOMEN, AND THE ARTS.

IF YOU ARE A LOVER OF BOOKS OR POETRY YOU SHOULD PICK UP HER BOOKS. SHE IS A STRONG POWERFUL WRITER THAT KNOWS WHAT SHES WANTS AND WHAT SHE WANTS SHOW. HER POETRY IS GIFTED AND STRONG AND BRINGS OUT SO MUCH TO THE READER.

POEM SPOTLIGHT

EXPECT NOTHING


Expect nothing. Live frugally
On surprise.become a stranger
To need of pity
Or, if compassion be freely
Given out
Take only enough
Stop short of urge to plead
Then purge away the need.Wish for nothing larger
Than your own small heart
Or greater than a star;Tame wild disappointment
With caress unmoved and cold
Make of it a parka
For your soul.Discover the reason why
So tiny human midget
Exists at all
So scared unwise
But expect nothing. Live frugally
On surprise.

BY: ALICE WALKER


POEM SPOTLIGHT:

I Said to Poetry

I said to Poetry:"I'm finished
with you."Having to almost die
before some wierd light
comes creeping through
is no fun."No thank you, Creation,
no muse need apply.
Im out for good times--at the very least,
some painless convention."

Poetry laid back
and played dead
until this morning.
I wasn't sad or anything,
only restless.

Poetry said: "You remember
the desert, and how glad you were
that you have an eye
to see it with? You remember
that, if ever so slightly?
"I said: "I didn't hear that.
Besides, it's five o'clock in the a.m.
I'm not getting up
in the dark
to talk to you."

Poetry said: "But think about the time
you saw the moon
over that small canyon
that you liked so much better
than the grand one--and how surprised you were
that the moonlight was green
and you still had
one good eye
to see it with

Think of that!"

"I'll join the church!" I said,
huffily, turning my face to the wall.
"I'll learn how to pray again!"

"Let me ask you," said Poetry.
"When you pray, what do you think
you'll see?"

Poetry had me.

"There's no paper
in this room," I said.
"And that new pen I bought
makes a funny noise."

"Bullshit," said Poetry.
"Bullshit," said I