Sweet Solitude: New and Selected Poems

by Leonard A. Slade Jr.

Overview

Drawing deeply from the well of the African American experience, Leonard Slade's poetry addresses a wide variety of subjects and themes, from beauty, family, and nature to racism, religion, and politics. Running throughout, however, are the importance of love, faith, and the human need to be connected to others. Included in Sweet Solitude are new poems, previously uncollected in book form, as well as selections from the author's twelve volumes of previously published poetry. These are poems of celebration and endurance for all readers.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781438433462
Publisher:	State University of New York Press
Publication date:	01/02/2011
Series:	Excelsior Editions
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	148
File size:	181 KB

About the Author

Leonard A. Slade Jr. is Professor of Africana Studies, Adjunct Professor of English, Past Director of the Humanistic Studies Doctoral Program and the Master of Arts in Liberal Studies Program, Collins Fellow, and Citizen Academic Laureate at the University at Albany–SUNY. He has published in many journals and magazines and is the author of thirteen books of poetry: Jazz After Dinner, also published by SUNY Press; Triumph; Another Black Voice: A Different Drummer; The Beauty of Blackness; I Fly Like a Bird; The Whipping Song; Vintage; Fire Burning; Pure Light; Neglecting the Flowers; Lilacs in Spring; Elisabeth and Other Poems; and For the Love of Freedom. He lives with his wife in Albany, New York.

Table of Contents

I. From Another Black Voice:

A Different Drummer (1988)

The Black Man Speaks of Rivers, Part 2: A Tribute to Langston Hughes

Acquaintances

The Black Madonna

The Anniversary

The Country Preacher’s Folk Prayer

God’s Gender

The Mansion

By the Side of the Road

Race

Elegy for Therman B. O’Daniel


II. From The Beauty of Blackness (1989)

The Beauty of Blackness

Transition

Sleepless Now

Cat

When I Heard from the Tax Man

A Child’s Play

A Black Man’s Song

Spring

To an Apostle of Peace


III. From I Fly Like a Bird (1992)

Birds

Black Woman

His Professor

Overcharged

Drinking

And Want No More

Garden Party

What Are You, Life?

Grief

We Mourn a Sweet Soul


IV. From The Whipping Song (1993)

The Whipping Song

Peace Will Come

For My Forefathers

The Street Man

Love Should Grow, Not Wither

Rain

A Plea for Peace

Before the Death of Dad

Winds of Change


V. From For the Love of Freedom (2000)

For the Love of Freedom

The Black Hair

Why Are You Laughing?

The Saint

A Song for the Black Woman


VI. From Vintage (1995)

There Will Be Blacks in Heaven

Strangers


VII. From Pure Light (1996)

Pure Light

Calling All Black Men

Words

Your Life Is Over for You If

Sunrise

In Praise of Shoeshines

So Happy

Innocence in Black and White

Budget Cuts

I Fly Away

How Great You Are


VIII. From Neglecting the Flowers (1997)

Black and Beautiful

Rapping My Way Home from an English Conference at Hunter College on March 22, 1997

Reverend Hotair

Neglecting the Flowers

Like Douglass

Bury Yourself Now

On the Death of Mothers

Tongue

Burp

To Mephistopheles

Come, Prince of Peace

Good Manners

Love


IX. From Lilacs in Spring (1998)

I Came, I Saw, I Dreamed

The Country Club in the Academy

Lilacs in Spring

Song for a Beautiful Lady

Boss Hogg

Thank You, Abe!


X. From Elisabeth and Other Poems (1999)

The Good Queen Bess

Mother Africa

Working on the Farm in 1947

Marry This Poem

Departure

Embden Pond

Robert Lewis (Our Samoyed)


XI. From Jazz After Dinner (2007)

Jazz After Dinner

And When I Die

I Am a Black Man

Black Philosophy

Morning After Morning

Forgiveness


XII. New Poems (2008)

Heifer

Picnic

What I Need Is

I Want to Live While You Love Me

Highway to Love

I Do Love You

Brothers

Characteristics

Claudia, Back Home

Elegy for Emmanuel

Grapes

Today

Deacon

The Vision of America

The Geese

God’s Glory

The Thought

I Shall Pray

Acknowledgments
About the Author

What People are Saying About This

Houston A. Baker Jr.

The beauty of Slade's poetry is the adequacy of their feeling and the fine images he discovers for their expressions. His poetry is a rich addition to our literary stores. (Houston A. Baker Jr., Vanderbilt University)

Edythe Scott Bagley

'The Vision of America' in Sweet Solitude is a masterpiece, inspired by the greatest historic moment in my lifetime. Slade expresses his feelings in moving pieces of art. (Edythe Scott Bagley, sister of Coretta Scott King)

Nadine M. Knight

Slade's style flows easily from the freewheeling rhythm and call-and-response feel of 'The Country Preacher's Folk Prayer' to the spare, aloof lines of 'Cat.' With clarity and grace, his poems evoke familial pride, faith, and appreciation for those small moments that recollect beauty and kindness. (Nadine M. Knight, Whitman College)

Kate Stephens

Slade's poetry can pierce the heart or kiss the soul. (Kate Stephens, playwright and musician, Lexington, Kentucky)

Ruthe Sheffey

Authentic and joyous celebrations of the human spirit. (Ruthe Sheffey, Morgan State University)

Elizabeth Ammons

In spare, unpretentious verse Slade asks us to think about racism, history, love, the beauty of nature, the homeless, old teachers, young daughters, political hypocrisy—and more. These are splendid, moving poems. (Elizabeth Ammons, Tufts University)

Maya Angelou

When beautiful poetry emerges from its secret abode, we can only hope we have been wise enough to leave our soul's door ajar, and that it will enter and find a home there. I have read [Leonard Slade's] poetry, and I am the better for it, the wiser for it, and the happier for it.

Editorial Reviews

A rhythmical and powerful voice we will long remember.
— The Daily Independent (Ashland, Kentucky)

Thelma Kiser