Mother Emanuel Poems for the Dead and Living
No Word: Canna indica
By David-Glen Smith
No word exists for the arc of a
shadow that lies
under the palm in the act of ripping a page from a prayer book.
No word defines
what’s
left behind from a torn book of psalms;
cast off prayer beads,
words
scattered, a knot untied.
--cut stalks of canna lilies
with blooms so red they blister, weep
against the hands, tremble,
a circle of candles, a multitude--
As a means to erase the erasure,
to mend the splinters of holiness;
even a prayer branches,
as a river
diverts its path in order to preserve,
to remember the core of itself,
to stitch back the page lifted from
the binding.
No word exists for the pulse of lilies
harvested, placed beside a church
named Mother Emmanuel. Only a river of psalms
would suffice—faith brimming at
the edge,
no, rather overflowing the lip of its
banks.
Confession of Sin to Mother Emanuel AME
By Ron Starbuck
Lordy - Lordy - Lordy
Here we go
again Jesus!
Condemned by
what
we do, and do
not do.
Refuse to do
really,
complacent
one more time.
It’s happening
all over again, and we
just don’t
even see it Jesus, do we?
Blinded by our
monuments
and
institutions of death.
The holocaust
of hatred
visited upon
one generation
After another
and
another and
another.
My God, what’s wrong
with us as a
nation?
We don’t even
know
who we are
any more.
Each day
passes, and
as the news
stories change
we
conveniently forget
what brought
us to
this place,
this moment.
How many times
do we need
To repeat
history
here Lord,
how many?
We’ve lost
count you
know, and if
you asked
someone now,
to
remember and
recite
the names of
each
person who
died
at Mother
Emanuel.
we just
couldn’t do it
our memories
are that
short.
Is it any
wonder that
it will
happen all
over again,
when we
can’t even
remember
our own dead
and dying.
June 17,
2015 ~ Cynthia Marie Graham Hurd (54) – Bible
study member and manager for the Charleston County Public Library system;
sister of Malcolm Graham. | Susie Jackson (87) – a Bible study and church choir member.
| Ethel Lee Lance (70) – the church sexton. | Depayne Middleton-Doctor (49) – a pastor who was also
employed as a school administrator admissions coordinator at
Southern Wesleyan University. | Clementa
C. Pinckney (41) – the church pastor and a South Carolina state senator.
| Tywanza Sanders (26) – a
Bible study member; nephew of Susie Jackson. | Daniel
Simmons (74) – a pastor who also served at Greater Zion AME Church in Awendaw. | Sharonda
Coleman-Singleton (45) – a pastor; also a speech therapist and track
coach at Goose Creek High School. | Myra Thompson (59)
– a Bible study teacher.