My father was from Virginia Virginia people
that's what Virginia people feel that way that's
true my father taught us about Virginia before he taught us
about heaven.
He taught us this is fact.
He taught us that if you were good, you got to heaven.
But if you were fantastic, you got to Virginia.
And I believed that.
I believed it.
I had never been there, but I happened
to have a chance to go about four years ago
to a conference in Richmond.
And when we crossed the Washington-Virginia border,
I felt something, you know.
I was shocked.
I really felt something.
I kept thinking to myself my father's ground.
I did weird patriotic things.
I went to a historical building while we were there.
And someone was kind enough to show me some old books.
And in one of the books I read a name,
which I had heard all my life, the name's Sayles.
My maiden name was Sayles, and I felt something
when I saw that name.
And so I wanted to write a poem.
The first two lines of this poem and the last two
are from a song that we used to sing in the Baptist church.
I find ex Baptists in lots of audiences.
I rarely find Baptists.
Are there any Baptists?
You see what I mean?
Unbelievable.
Do you see what I mean?
While the song is called "Tramping," and some of you
may have heard of it.
In the first two lines in the last two from this poem
are from the song "Tramping".
I went to the valley, but I didn't go to stay.
I stand on my father's ground, not breaking.
It holds me up like a hand, my father pushes.
Virginia.
I am in Virginia.
The magic word rocked in my father's box like heaven.
The magic line in my hand.
But where is the Africa in this?
Except, the grass is green, is greener, he would say.
And the sky opens a better blue, and in the Historical Museum
where the slaves are still hidden away like knives,
I find a paper with a name I know.
His name, their name, Sayles.
The name he loved.
I stand on my father's ground, not breaking.
There is an African in this, and whose ever name it has been,
the blood is mine.
My soul got happy, and I stayed all day.
Thank you.