January 20, 2018
Dear Subscriber:
Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of
view. The theme for this week is Martin Luther King, Jr.’s Birthday, which was
celebrated on January 15th.
In today’s poem, Martin Luther King, Jr., reflects on the
way his fame has distorted the truth of his life.
I welcome comments on my poems at
https://nicholasgordon.blogspot.com.
Yours,
Nick Gordon
My face is an icon, my life a scrim
Alight with meaning, my words inscribed
Reductively in stone, a hymn
To dreams annually revived.
In me you found a founding father
New, like Lincoln a colossus
Late arrived: righteous Other,
Unavenging nemesis,
The token nigger of American
Heroes, aggrieved but restrained,
Engaged but non-partisan,
Radical but house-trained.
Know that I still believe in you,
In spite of what you've done to me.
Nor can a holiday a truth
Give flesh long flayed by memory.
© by Nicholas Gordon
Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I
chose for it at https://www.poemsforfree.com/myface.html.
For more poems for Martin Luther King, Jr.’s Birthday, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/martinlutherkingpoems.html
.
This week’s theme: Martin Luther King, Jr.’s Birthday
January 15: Maybe It’s a Little Strange that I
January 16: Maybe More than Love Was Needed
January 17: Maybe Some Had Thought I Hoped Too Much
January 18: Maybe There Is More to Life than Living
January 19: Meaning Is a Morning Song
January 20: My Face Is an Icon
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