William Taylor is our resident award-winning poet who creates poems for our educational materials and website. The poem, Memories, was written about the passing of his beloved grandmother and what she meant to him growing up. The poem will be in the beginning of our book The Chronicle of Heroes, Black Contributions to America. We have included the text from the poem for you to follow along as he reads his copyrighted poem here.
Memories by William Taylor
Fingers run in place on piano keys ever so smooth…
Drop dead gorgeous with a stern rule
Got a spanking in grade 2 when I thought I was man enough to walk from school
You tucking me in,
I can vividly see your grin…
Summers in the pool, eventually your backyard became my summer school
I learned so much from you…
Enjoy a drink, keep money in the bank, if someone ask, don’t bite your tongue,
tell them exactly what you think,
Don’t let grass grow under your feet;
mow it down
keep it moving
sleep
wake up
repeat…
A little bit of country
A little bit of rock n roll with undertones of jazz and cotton club creole, beating
in your soul
Mixed emotions bathed with the salt water erosions that stain my face,
unfortunately I’m far too familiar with this lonely space
So what do I do; pray with hopes of seeing you in a world that is new
So now, with every thought of you
I will always cherish these memories, as the piano in my head forever plays the blues…