Love Poems be Boppin'

Cover for Southern Exposure's Southern Black Utterances Today cover featuring a woodcut print of a Black man's face gazing upward, by Atlanta artist Lucious Hightower

This article originally appeared in Southern Exposure Vol. 3 No. 1, "Southern Black Utterances Today." Find more from that issue here.

who said love poems

had to be stilled

by some set rhythmic form . . .

love oughta be yelled about

love oughta boogie down in poems

the maker of music

oughta be love

love is walkin a mile

for a puff of yo love

that's M-m-m M-m-m good

love is the number one brand

that sticks to yo arms

and is higher than the highest

high-priced spread

that is good to the last drop

love is you

lettin my fingers do the walkin

through the pages of yo blkmind

and the soft, tender touch

of an ebony child

love is blkman/blkwoman

together in love            love

is

love is one—ness

and homemade biscuits

on visiting day

and the first smile of the sun

and Jesus sayin

“hey, y'all, yah i'm Black!"

love is respect

for yo woman

and yo brotha's woman

and yo brotha's brotha's woman

love is the choc'late warmth

that melts in yo heart

not in yo hands

love poems be boppin

unchained and runnin free