Poet/writer ntozake shange died on Saturday, 27 October 2018. I pulled up this older poem that says what she means to me.
May you have peace walking with the ancestors, mighty Lion.
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Why theatre? Why
poetry? Why any-
thing at all? I found my answer on Broad-
way in nineteen-seventy-eight in a
chor-e-o-poem that blew my mind wide o-
pen and launched me on a walk from forty-
fifth street north through Central Park and in-
to the rest of my life.
n-to-zak-e
shang-e, I thank you for my vocation.
for colored girls who have
considered su-
icide / when the
rainbow Is enuf. Wow!
Imagine horrific stories inside
friendship circles—in defeats belied by
such presence that the stage empowered all
on and in front of it.
Imagine feet
planted so no one could knock you over!
Imagine finding God in
yourself and
loving her so fiercely that you expand
into a rainbow—and you gain some sense
of the day I saw seven Black woman
form a rainbow and transformed into what
God meant for me to do and to become.
For Björn and Toni's Poetics with Kanzen: What poets inspired you? at dVerse Poets Pub |
Copyright © 2015 S.L.Chast
A sample from the choreopoem / drama:
i have loved you assiduously for 8 months 2 wks & a day
i have been stood up four times
i've left 7 packages on yr doorstep
forty poems 2 plants & 3 handmade notecards i left
town so i cd send to you have been no help to me
on my job
you call at 3:00 in the mornin on weekdays
so i cd drive 27 1/2 miles cross the bay before i go to work
charmin charmin
but you are of no assistance
i want you to know
this waz an experiment
to see how selifsh i cd be
if i wd really carry on to snare a possible lover
if i waz capable of debasin my self for the love of another
if i cd stand not being wanted
when i wanted to be wanted
& i cannot
so
with no further assistance & no guidance from you
i am endin this affair
this note is attached to a plant
i've been waterin since the day i met you
you may water it
yr damn self”