I grew up in Buffalo, New York.
And I'd like to read a poem now that means a lot to me.
I give homage in reading it to Gwendolyn Brooks who wrote
a poem called, The Mother.
Do you know that poem?
And it was through her writing the poem, The Mother, that I
was able to write this poem.
And hopefully someone might hear it and be
able to write another poem.
And I'd like to read it especially for Mike.
It's called The Lost Baby Poem.
"the time I dropped your almost body down,
down to meet the waters under the city,
and run one with the sewage to the sea,
what did I know about waters rushing back?
what did I know about drowning or being drowned?
you would have been born into winter,
in the year of the disconnected gas and no car.
we would have made the thin walk over genesee hill
into the Canada wind, to watch you slip
like ice into strangers hands.
you would have fallen naked as snow into winter.
if you were here I could tell you
these and some other things.
if I am ever less than a mountain
for your definite brothers and sisters,
let the rivers pour over my head,
let the sea take me for a spiller of seas,
let black men call me stranger, always for your never named
sake.
[APPLAUSE]
Thank you.
[APPLAUSE]