James Baldwin
My best friend,
A black boy
jumped
off
the
George
Washington
Bridge
when he was 24
I was sure
I was going to be next
not because of despair
but rage.
a red circle of rage
neighboring in my black body
like a plague—
hating everyone
and myself
alike
______________________________________________________________________________
There never was a chance
for a black writer.
a writer, black or White
doesn’t have much of
a chance.
nobody wants a Writer
until their hands
are paralyzed
in rest
Background: According to Wikipedia (the most trusted site of course) “found poetry is a type of poetry created by taking words, phrases, and sometimes whole passages from other sources and reframing them by making changes in spacing and lines, or by adding or deleting text, thus imparting new meaning.” Which is what I did here with this 1979, never aired, James Baldwin video.