About God & Things

By Wanda Coleman b. 1946 Wanda Coleman

i want to have your child

cuz upon losing you

i’ll have more than memory

more than ache

more than greatness

i’ll have laughter

i do not mean to be fatalistic

know the limits put on you black man

me, black woman

when you are killed or imprisoned

desert or separate from me

i’ll continue

fill the void of your absence with

love between me and ours

gods

you love me

in your eyes. don’t say it loud

pain

america will never let you

you’re home. it’s a surprise

you’ve made it thru another day

one more night in your arms

to fuck

merge our bodies merge

give

wealth/freedom

congress cannot legislate away

eyes wide as suns inquire

where’s daddy?

he’s gone away

i love my daddy

i smile

he’s a good man

eyes wide as suns

burn my hand with a kiss

go outside to play in the streets

god

what god is about

Source: Imagoes (Black Sparrow Press, 1983)

Biography

Poet and writer Wanda Coleman is a blatantly humanist artist who has won much critical acclaim for her unusually prescient and often innovative work but who has struggled to make a living from her craft. In discussing “my life in poetry,” More magazine, April 2005, Camille Paglia said of Coleman: “She’s not as central as she should be. Her language jumps off the page.” With twelve books of collected writings published by the . . .

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