I'd like to read some poems from those three books,
and also a few new poems.
And I'd like to start with a poem
that I'd like to start with.
The poem that I wrote for my blood sister,
it's called "Sisters," and it's from An Ordinary Woman.
It appeared in an Essence magazine.
Do you know Essence?
Some of you know Essence.
And my sister was very happy when it appeared in Essence.
The poem title is "Sisters for Elaine Philip
on Her Birthday."
And Elaine's name had been in a magazine.
She was very thrilled.
She carried copies of the magazine around with her,
she had them open on her coffee table,
and she was very, very, happy, that made me happy.
She said that she stayed out all night
for the first time in her life, because she was a celebrity now
and that's what you do.
Something that you should know is that my sister is a singer.
She is very good but like a lot of Black people
of her generation, of our generation,
she was never able to do anything really
with her talent.
I wrote the poem because she and I are only six months apart
in age.
And like a lot of people who have siblings,
she always wonders why I'm like I am when she's like she is.
Do you know what I mean?
A lot of people wonder that.
So "Sisters for Elaine Philip on Her Birthday."
Me and you be sisters.
We be the same.
Me and you come in from the same place.
Me and you be greasing our legs, touching up our edges.
Me and you be scared of rats be stepping on roaches.
Me and you come running high down Purdy street one
time and mama laugh and shake her head at me and you.
Me and you got babies, got 35, got black,
let our hair go back, be loving ourselves, be loving ourselves,
be sisters.
Only where you sing, I poet.
[APPLAUSE]