Carole King (born February 9, 1942) U.S. songwriter/singer
Read about Carole King here and here
Listen to Carole King's 'Nightingale' here
Watch Carole King's
1993 Color of Your Dreams concert
Alice Malsenior Walker (born February 9, 1944) U.S. novelist, poet - The Color Purple
Read about Alice Walker here
I Said to Poetry
I said to Poetry: “I’m finished
with you.”
Having to almost die
before some weird light
comes creeping through
is no fun.
“No thank you, Creation,
no muse need apply.
I’m out for good times–
at the very least,
some painless convention.”
Poetry laid back
and played dead
until this morning.
I wasn’t sad or anything,
only restless.
Poetry said: “You remember
the desert, and how glad you were
that you have an eye
to see it with? You remember
that, if ever so slightly?”
I said: “I didn’t hear that.
Besides, it’s five o’clock in the a.m.
I’m not getting up
in the dark
to talk to you.”
Poetry said: “But think about the time
you saw the moon
over that small canyon
that you liked so much better
than the grand one–and how surprised you were
that the moonlight was green
and you still had
one good eye
to see it with
Think of that!”
"I'll join the church!” I said,
huffily, turning my face to the wall.
“I’ll learn how to pray again!”
“Let me ask you,” said Poetry.
“When you pray, what do you think
you’ll see?”
Poetry had me.
“There’s no paper
in this room,” I said.
“And that new pen I bought
makes a funny noise.”
“Bullshit,” said Poetry.
“Bullshit,” said I.
Watch, listen to Alice Walker read from
We Are the Ones We Have Been Waiting For (CSpan BookTV 47 mins)
https://www.c-span.org/video/?283686-1/ones-waiting
Alice Walker recites Sojourner Truth’s 1851 speech “Ain’t I a Woman?”
here
Cassandra Steen (born February 9, 1980) German singer/songwriter
Cassandra Steen performs Darum Leben Wir
here
Amy Lowell (born February 9, 1874) - U.S. poet
Read about Amy Lowell here
Fragment
What is poetry? Is it a mosaic
Of coloured stones which curiously are wrought
Into a pattern? Rather glass that's taught
By patient labor any hue to take
And glowing with a sumptuous splendor, make
Beauty a thing of awe; where sunbeams caught,
Transmuted fall in sheafs of rainbows fraught
With storied meaning for religion's sake.