Skip to main content

Afaa Michael Weaver

Visiting Poet

Afaa Michael Weaver

被亨利·路易斯·盖茨形容为“当今最重要的诗人之一”, Afaa Michael Weaver 是十五本诗集的作者,这些诗集探索了个人和公众的深度和交集. The son of a sharecropper, he grew up in working class Baltimore, did a stint in the Army, and spent fifteen years as a factory worker, 在此期间,他断断续续地写作,并创办了第七子出版社和文学杂志 Blind Alleys. 经过10年的努力,韦弗出版了他的第一本书 Water Song 并于1985年获得NEA奖学金. 韦弗的早期作品受到黑人艺术运动的影响, 他后期的诗歌被 Los Angeles Review of Book但丁的“个人的、历史的、史诗的和精神的”旅程 Divine Comedy ,进入人类经历和痛苦的深处,然后再回来.”

韦弗的许多荣誉包括四个推车奖, inclusion in Best American Poetry (2014, 2015), The May Sarton Award, a Pew Fellowship, 获富布赖特奖学金,任教于国立台湾大学和台北国立艺术大学, 北京市作家协会友情金质奖章. As a playwright, in addition to an NEA fellowship, 他的剧本获得了芝加哥ETA创意艺术基金会颁发的PDI剧本奖 Elvira and the Lost Prince. 他的一些诗歌已被翻译成阿拉伯文和中文, and, 曾就读于台湾台北语言学院, 韦弗自己也翻译并写过中文诗.

在台湾的时光对韦弗产生了深远的影响, 为他的生活和工作增添了一层新的参考和思维角度, 在广受好评的《澳门葡京博彩软件》中得到了充分的发展 The Plum Flower Dance (Poems 1985-2005), The Government of Nature (2014年金斯利·塔夫茨奖得主)和 City of Eternal Spring (2015年菲利斯·惠特利图书奖得主). 三部曲讲述了他对文化和种族认同的追寻, 并研究了童年性虐待的压抑和恢复记忆以及随之而来的斗争. 《澳门葡京博彩软件》的第一部分引用了《澳门葡京博彩软件》的题词,描述了这本书——实际上是三部曲——的路径:“经自然之道,浑水清。.在诗歌中,他将其描述为“一种抒情的探究之光的化身……通向内心”,韦弗把他过去的浑水写得清清楚楚, into wholeness. Subsequent books include the chapbook A Hard Summation (2014),一套关于中间通道的诗歌,以及 Spirit Boxing(2017).

韦弗是第一位在巴克内尔大学斯塔德勒中心担任驻校诗人的非裔美国诗人, and has also taught at NYU, City University of New York, Seton Hall Law School, Rutgers University, the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference, 他在西蒙斯学院担任了20年的特聘教授. 自凯夫卡内姆成立以来,他一直是凯夫卡内姆的教职员工,并于1998年成为凯夫卡内姆的第一位长老. In addition, 他目前是德鲁大学诗歌与翻译专业的核心教师,也是一名经过认证的太极拳教师, an ancient Chinese system of health, martial arts, and mental conditioning.

Select Poems

for Gene F. Thomas

It’s as if you are given the sky to carry,

把它扛在肩上,带它去吃午饭,

sit in McDonald’s with it weighing you down,

做黑人,做黑人

直到永恒的黑暗亲吻你.

Birth gives you something other folk thank

上帝没有,或者他们祈祷,

有一个身体倾向于触摸的礼物,

inclined to sing. Yet they will not give back

to God the paleness of being able to touch

absolute power. They envy only for so long,

as being black is being bound to danger.

Among us there are masters like Monk,

who understood the left hand stride

on a brick. In his rapturous dance beside

the piano, he was connected to knowing

the scratch and slide of the shoes leaving

the ground, the shoes of the lynched men.

He carried this thing that we are,

as the mystic he was, reveling in its magic,

respectful of its anger, mute and unchanged

as the hate and envy surround us.

One day we learn there is no sky above

this trapped air around the earth.

The sky is but a puff of smoke from

this giant head smoking a Lucky Strike,

pretending not to know the truths.

We learn sometimes in this life,

sometimes in what comes after, where

there is really nothing but everything

we never knew. We learn in silence

the dance Monk knew. We find

secrets for pulling the million arrows

from our souls each time we move

to sleep, to forget that we are both

jewel and jetsam, wanted and unforgiven.

摘自《澳门葡京博彩软件》(匹兹堡大学出版社,2007年)

December 26, 2004

不要急于求成,因为那将是一扇门

too large for those who rush. Take instead the slow touch

of bamboo. Come each morning to the same tree and rub

慢慢地,就像你搓揉自己的肢体一样.

要知道你可能会被外科医生的刀和触摸弄丢

every thin line. 感受物体单根轴的颜色

就像你在手指上找到最小的位置一样.

把你的嘴唇贴在树叶上,就像你要亲吻的那样

the hair on your own arms. Embrace it with all of you

and promise to keep the farmer’s axe away. Promise to shoo

away the poison air of the cities. Ask the earth to bless

it with children that are bamboo. Come at night and wait

等待竹林在风中歌唱,等到歌声来临,

until hunger makes you angry. Think of the lines of bamboo,

他们是如何迅速上升,然后随着成就而屈服的.

这可能需要比你拥有的时间更长的时间,或者你可能会施压

竹子变成了对自己美丽的无情恐惧.

If so, start again, more slowly this time. After each step,

为那些没有回到海里的孩子们祈祷

足够的时间去学习竹子的歌,还是要记住.

《澳门葡京博彩软件》(匹兹堡大学出版社,2013)

我的左手搭在她肩上,我的右手

滑过她的背,我闻到了马的气味,

把我的鼻子伸进她的头发,在她身上摩擦

直到她靠在我身上,好像要睡着了

里面的爱,抚摸着抚摸着直到她的大衣

有新星光的明亮,清晨

谷仓里一窝小猎犬的叫声,

小牛在牧场上吃奶.

Up and down the length of her side, one hand

为了稳住自己,一手丈量距离

心中的愿望是与马和风景融为一体,

当我举起双手,伸展天空的感觉

我张开双臂劈开云雾,认识一匹马

那脆弱的上帝,那神圣的肉体

和我们一起落在地球上,带着确定的骨头

成为凡人,成为我们无法成为的人,坚强

我们在哪里软弱,在哪里软弱,我们在哪里坚强

当我伸出双手,我们变成了唯一的东西

骑在这匹灰马的背上,我们就得救了.

摘自《澳门葡京博彩软件》(匹兹堡大学出版社,2017年)

About Afaa Michael

Poetry Center Reading Dates: September 2017

" class="hidden">今朝装饰