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Photo credits: as posted on https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/kevin-young
Born in Lincoln, Nebraska, Young was the only child of two working parents, his father, Dr. Paul E. Young, was an ophthalmologist and his mother, Dr. Azzie Young, a chemist. Due to the careers of both of his parents, his family moved frequently throughout his youth. Young lived in six different places before he reached the age of ten, but his family ultimately settled in Topeka, Kansas. He first began to pursue writing when he was thirteen years old, after he attended a summer writing class at Washburn University. Young attended Harvard College, where he studied with Seamus Heaney and Lucie Brock-Broido and became friends with writer Colson Whitehead.
Live Readings
Live Readings
Poems
Poems
Ode to the MidwestThe country I come fromIs called the Midwest—Bob Dylan I want to be dousedin cheese & fried. I wantto wander the aisles, my heart'ssupermarket stocked high as cholesterol. I want to diewearing a sweatsuit— I want to liveforever in a Christmas sweater, a teddy bear nursingoff the front. I want to write a check in the express lane.I want to scrape my driveway clean myself, early, beforeanyone's awake— that'll put em to shame—I want to see what the sun sees before it tellsthe snow to go. I want to be the only black person I know. I want to throwout my back & not complain about it.I wanta drive two blocks. Why walk— I want love, n stuff— I want to cutmy sutures myself. I want to jogdown to the river & make it my bed— I want to walkits muddy banks & make me a withdrawal. I tried jumping in,found it frozen— I'll go home, I guess,to my rooms where the moon changes & shineslike television.
Ode to Sweet Potato Pie
Caramel. Coffee cake. Chocolate I don't much loveanyway. Tough taffy.
Anything with nuts. Or raisins. Goobers. Even my Aunt Dixie's
apple pie recipeor the sweet potato piemy mother makes sing.
Even heaven. Even Bostoncream pie, Key Lime, Baked Alaska, dense
flourless torte covered in raspberrieslike a Bronx cheer.Sherbet, spelt right,
and sandwichesmade of ice cream, even mintor coffee I never drink,
even sherry, and smooth portpulled up from shipwreckspreserved on the bottom of the sea -
all this, & more, I would give upto have you here, pumpkin-colored father, cooking
for me - your hungry ovenhumming - just onemore minute
-from Dear Darkness (2008)
Caramel. Coffee cake. Chocolate I don't much loveanyway. Tough taffy.
Anything with nuts. Or raisins. Goobers. Even my Aunt Dixie's
apple pie recipeor the sweet potato piemy mother makes sing.
Even heaven. Even Bostoncream pie, Key Lime, Baked Alaska, dense
flourless torte covered in raspberrieslike a Bronx cheer.Sherbet, spelt right,
and sandwichesmade of ice cream, even mintor coffee I never drink,
even sherry, and smooth portpulled up from shipwreckspreserved on the bottom of the sea -
all this, & more, I would give upto have you here, pumpkin-colored father, cooking
for me - your hungry ovenhumming - just onemore minute
-from Dear Darkness (2008)
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