100-plus Poems I Read & Re-Read (online) in 2011

Blogging so frequently about African American poetry during the last 12 months led me back to some poems again and again. I have provided links to more than 100 poems that I found myself returning to at least 3 or 4 times during the course of the year.

The poems linked below only represent pieces that were easily available to me online. Quite a few of the poems I encountered appeared only in books.  Believe it or not, the process of compiling these 100-plus poems actually made me more aware of how relatively few of the poems that I covered multiple times this year appeared online.

A - H
• “The Venus Hottentot” By Elizabeth Alexander
• "Race" By Elizabeth Alexander
• "Narrative: Ali" By Elizabeth Alexander 
• "Butter" By Elizabeth Alexander 
• "Still I Rise" By Maya Angelou
• "Digging Max (At Seventy Five, All the Way Live!)" By Amiri Baraka
• "Somebody Blew Up America" - By Amiri Baraka (with saxophonist Ron Brown)
• "Obama Poem" - By Amiri Baraka (with Ron Brown)
• "Dope" By Amiri Baraka
• "In the Funk World" By Amiri Baraka
• "For you: anthophilous, lover of flowers" by Reginald Dwayne Betts

Gwendolyn Brooks

• "Switch" Tara Betts
• "kitchenette building" By Gwendolyn Brooks
• "a song in the front yard" By Gwendolyn Brooks
• "The Bean Eaters" By Gwendolyn Brooks
• "We Real Cool" By Gwendolyn Brooks
• "wishes for sons" By Lucille Clifton
• "won't you celebrate with me" By Lucille Clifton 
• "homage to my hips" By Lucille Clifton
• "Yet Do I Marvel" By Countee Cullen
• "Black Boys Play the Classics" By Toi Derricotte
• "American Smooth" By Rita Dove
• "Son of Msippi" By Henry Dumas 
• Selection of Poems By Henry Dumas
• "We Wear the Mask" By Paul Laurence Dunbar
• "Sympathy" By Paul Laurence Dunbar
• "Raised by Women" By Kelly Norman Ellis
• "All Their Stanzas Look Alike" By Thomas Sayers Ellis
• "Concerto no. 7: condoleezza {working out}" By Nikky Finney
• "Left" By Nikky Finney
• "Talking Blues" By Calvin Forbes
• "Nikki-Rosa" By Nikki Giovanni
• "Ego Tripping (there may be a reason why)" By Nikki Giovanni
• "Bury Me in a Free Land" By Frances E. W. Harper
• "The Slave Auction" By Frances E. W. Harper
• "The Slave Mother" By Frances E. W. Harper
• "Frederick Douglass" By Robert Hayden
• "Those Winter Sundays" By Robert Hayden
• "At Pegasus" By Terrance Hayes 
• "Shafro" By Terrance Hayes

Langston Hughes

• "I, Too" By Langston Hughes
• "The Negro Speaks of Rivers" By Langston Hughes
• "The Weary Blues"  By Langston Hughes
• "Dreams" By Langston Hughes
• "Dream Variations" By Langston Hughes
• "Let America Be America Again" By Langston Hughes
• "Life is Fine" By Langston Hughes
• "Madam and Her Madam" By Langston Hughes
• "Madam and the Phone Bill" By Langston Hughes
• "Po' Boy Blues" By Langston Hughes
• "Theme for English B" By Langston Hughes

I - P 
• "Tired" By Fenton Johnson
• "The Heart of a Woman" By Georgia Douglass Johnson
• "Sonnet to a Negro in Harlem" By Helene Johnson

Allison Joseph

• "Thirty Lines about the Fro" By Allison Joseph
• "Sonnet for a Good Mood"By Allison Joseph
• "Elegy for the Personal Letter" By Allison Joseph
• "Three Miles" By Allison Joseph
• "It Was a Funky Deal" By Etheridge Knight
• "For Malcolm, A Year After" By Etheridge Knight
• "Facing It" By Yusef Komunyakaa 
• "The Day I Saw Barack Obama Reading Derek Walcott's Collected Poems" By Yusef Komunyakaa
• "Santuaries for the Deacon's Sons" By Gary Copeland Lilley
• "Battle Royale" By Adrian Matejka
• "The Battle of the Century" By Adrian Matejka
• “Carefree as a Plantation Darky in Watermelon Time” - audio - By Adrian Matejka
• "Battle Royale" - audio - By Adrian Matejka
• "Fisticuffs" - audio - By Adrian Matejka
• "Sporting Life" - audio - By Adrian Matejka
• "If We Must Die" By Claude McKay
• "The Tropics in New York" By Claude McKay
• "America" By Claude McKay
• "The Lynching" By Claude McKay
• "Black Statue of Liberty" -  live version - By jessica Care moore 
• "The Summer After Malcolm" By Larry Neal

Margaret Walker

Q - Z
• "Song No. 2" By Sonia Sanchez
• "Writer's Block" By Evie Shockley
• "For My People" By Margaret Walker
• "Molly Means"  By Margaret Walker
• "Kissie Lee"  By Margaret Walker
• "Lineage" By Margaret Walker
• "Childhood" By Margaret Walker
• "For Malcolm X" By Margaret Walker
• "Sorrow Home" By Margaret Walker
• "On Being Brought From Africa to America" By Phillis Wheatley
• Five Haikus By Richard Wright
• "Black Cat Blues" By Kevin Young
• "Dirty Deal Blues" By Kevin Young
• "Bereavement" By Kevin Young
• "Reward" By Kevin Young
• "Ode to the Midwest" By Kevin Young
• "Slow Drag Blues" By Kevin Young
• "Errata" By Kevin Young
• "Urgent Telegram to Jean-Michel Basquiat" By Kevin Young

Related:
• 52 of the most anthologized African American poems 
• 50 Poems about Slavery, Struggles for Freedom
• 100 Poems read & re-read in 2012