How I Discovered Poetry - Marilyn Nelson

[Larry Robinson]

How I Discovered Poetry

It was like soul-kissing, the way the words
filled my mouth as Mrs. Purdy read from her desk.
All the other kids zoned an hour ahead to 3:15,
but Mrs. Purdy and I wandered lonely as clouds borne by a breeze off Mount Parnassus. 

She must have seen
the darkest eyes in the room brim: 
The next day she gave me a poem she’d chosen especially for me
to read to the all except for me white class.
She smiled when she told me to read it, smiled harder, said oh yes I could. 
She smiled harder and harder
until I stood and opened my mouth to banjo playing darkies, pickaninnies, disses and dats. When I finished my classmates stared at the floor. We walked silent
to the buses, awed by the power of words.

	- Marilyn Nelson