Black Humor in France: for Etha (with annotations) 2CloseImageViewView image “Black Humor in France: for Etha (with annotations) 2”Black Humor in France: for Etha (with annotations) 2Uploaded August, 2024Tags listtagsracefrancecross-atlanticethapoemannotations
Black Humor in France: for Etha (with annotations) 1CloseImageViewView image “Black Humor in France: for Etha (with annotations) 1”Black Humor in France: for Etha (with annotations) 1Uploaded August, 2024Tags listtagsracefrancecross-atlanticethapoemannotations
![169
“wash your face”
though dried to somber at the sign
of white so deftly brown again.
Final sip was “All depends
which room you’re in I guess;
just don’t come up behind me;
makes me nervous since the war”;
but didn’t say when the war began
nor dare count all those faces,
clean and white,
that came up from behind
1969
1970
169
A View from the White Helmet
[*”A View from the White Helment”: Written at the start of the 1960’s, when the African nations were beginning to become free. Note that some African leaders received their education at oxford.*]
[*Eleanor Roosevelt, the wife of the President of the USA, FDR, liked this poem, according to a City College colleague who knew her, William Turner Levy.*]
A glittering thing,
Africa-long
Approaches,
Gliding through legendary leaves,
Traversing ancient rivers.
A clattering thing,
Africa-long
Echoes,
Like bracelets of ivory](https://nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com/manifold-cuny-api-store/store/resource/3/3/8/33889ae5-b46a-4ac4-a06e-48fe3e7015ef/attachment/15a456791f027855d0ffaeff2e29126a.jpg)
![168
When this white though healing hand
Trespasses and takes command.)
(Hate for friends and hate for foes
Who have not endured hate’s blows
Digested with the crumbs of years.
What can stop these ancient tears
Burning in a little face
So captive in a starched embrace?)
(cs. 1963)
1964
168
Black Humor in France: For Etha
[*Written in Seyssins about a real incident, circumstances that show how humor can help heal the psyche. See my autobiographical essay “A Force in the Field, CAAS, Vol. 18, on this poem.*]
Outshouting bathwater,
whitefaced with soap,
behind me doorbursting,
“BOO!” right at my ear you jumped,
hopping to crouch and grin as
“DAMN!” went coffee sloshing.
“White folks scareya, hunh?”
Black only growled,
but soapface pranced and crowed
“think white!” “think snow!”
till sip of coffee made the chuckle](https://nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com/manifold-cuny-api-store/store/resource/d/a/9/da98e393-0736-41da-a393-b1a6ca4080a2/attachment/91f4690eadf544ea3a7a53c78dff419a.jpg)