Directed by Desire: The Collected Poems of June Jordan

June Jordan

Copper Canyon Press, Jun 1, 2007 - Poetry - 640 pages

""Directed by Desire" . . . is a powerful addition to the entire canon of American poetry."--"Booklist"

Now in paperback, "Directed by Desire" is the definitive overview of June Jordan's -poetry. Collecting the finest work from Jordan's ten volumes, as well as dozens of "last poems" that were never published in Jordan's lifetime, these more than six hundred pages overflow with intimate lyricism, elegance, fury, meditative solos, and dazzling vernacular riffs.

As Adrienne Rich writes in her introduction, June Jordan "wanted her readers, listeners, students, to feel their own latent power--of the word, the deed, of their own beauty and intrinsic value."

From "These Poems"

"These poems"
"they are things that I do"
"in the dark"
"reaching for you"
"whoever you are"
"and"
"are you ready?"

The cloth edition of "Directed by Desire" was selected as a "Library Journal" Poetry Book of the Year and received the Lambda Book Award for Lesbian Poetry.

June Jordan taught at UC Berkeley for many years and founded Poetry for the People. Her twenty-eight books include poetry, essays, fiction, and children's books. She was a regular columnist for "The Progressive" and a prolific writer whose articles appeared in "The Village Voice, The New York Times, Ms. Magazine, " and "The Nation." After her death in 2002, a school in the San Francisco School District was renamed in her honor.

Contents

• Who LookatMe: 7
• some changes 1971: 19
• Not a Suicide Poem: 25
• For Somebody to Start Singing: 31
• Juice of a Lemon on the Trail of Little Yellow: 37
• What Declaration: 38
• Leaves Blow Backward: 44
• Rejoinder: 52
• No Train of Thought: 58
• Exercise in Quits: 64
• Roman Poem Number Three: 90
• Roman Poem Number Seventeen: 102
• No Poem: 121
• From an Uprooted Condition: 134
• Onesided Dialog: 147
• On Divine Adaptation to an Age of Disbelief: 148
• On the Murder of Two Human Being Black Men: 163
• fromthings that i do in the dark 1977: 185
• The Round of Grief: 201
• One Minus One Minus: 202
• For Ethelbert: 208
• 1976: 214
• From Inside the Continuum: 222
• From The Talking Back ofMiss ValentineJones: 232
• On a Monday Afternoon: 243
• Poem for Nana: 249
• Poem for the Poet Alexis De Veaux 253 Current Events: 253
• Poem about The Head ofa Negro: 255
• The Morning on the Mountains 256 The Rationale or She Drove Me Crazy: 256
• Case in Point: 257
• Poem of Personal Greeting for Fidel: 258
• Saratoga Springs and Especially about George Benson and Everyone Who Was Listening: 260
• Patricias Poem: 261
• You married?: 262
• TV Is Easy Next to Life: 263
• An Explanation Always Follows: 266
• Letter to the Local Police: 267
• Found Poem: 269
• Michael Goodbye for aWhile: 270
• Poem about Police Violence: 272
• Sketching in the Transcendental: 273
• A Poem about Intelligence for My Brothers and Sisters: 274
• verse from a fragmentary marriage: 275
• Poem for Mrs Fannie Lou Hamer: 276
• Poem for South African Women: 278
• Notes on the Peanut: 279
• Unemployment Monologue: 281
• Toward a City That Sings: 282
• A Song of Sojourner Truth: 283
• Alla Thas All Right: 285
• Nightletters: 286
• Evidently Looking at the Moon Requires a Clean Place to Stand 287 Free Flight: 287
• Letter to My Friend the Poet Ntozake Shange: 291
• Legend of the Holy Night When the Police Finally Held Fire: 292
• A Poem about Vieques Puerto Rico: 293
• Inaugural Rose: 297
• En Passant 298 For Lil: 298
• Niagara Falls 300 calling it quits: 300
• Poem toward the Bottom Line: 301
• Memoranda toward the Spring of Seventynine: 302
• A Short Note to My Very Critical and WellBeloved Friends and Comrades: 303
• Rape Is Not a Poem: 304
• What Is This in Reference To? or We Must Get Together Sometime Soon: 307
• Poem 2 for Inaugural Rose: 308
• Poem about My Rights: 309
• Grand Army Plaza: 312
• Taking Care: 313
• A RighttoLifer in Grand Forks North Dakota: 316
• A Poem in Process: 317
• living room 1985: 323
• From Sea to Shining: 325
• in the february blizzard of 1983: 331
• Des Moines Iowa: 332
• A poem for Jonathan 333 Poem for Nicaragua: 333
• Teotecacinte: 334
• war zone: 335
• photograph of Managua: 336
• report from the frontier: 337
• Directions for Carrying Explosive Nuclear Wastes through Metropolitan New York: 338
• North Carolina: 339
• Problems of Language: 340
• Independence Day in the U S: 343
• am the fallenI am the cliff: 344
• To Sing a Song of Palestine: 345
• Poem on the Road for Alice Walker: 346
• For Buck: 349
• Poem for Dana: 350
• A Song for Soweto: 352
• Atlantic Coast Reggae: 353
• Richard Wright Was Wrong: 356
• 1981: 357
• Song of the Law Abiding Citizen: 358
• October 23 1983: 360
• look at the blackbird fall: 361
• March Song: 362
• Menu: 363
• Addenda to the Papal Bull: 366
• Poem for the Poet Sara Miles: 367
• Poem for Guatemala: 368
• Meditation: 370
• the snow 371 Who Would Be Free Themselves Must Strike the Blow: 371
• A Runaway Lil Bit Poem: 372
• DeLiza Spend the Day in the City: 373
• 374 November: 374
• Poem towards a Final Solution: 376
• Tornado Watch: 383
• Grace: 389
• The Cedar Trees of Lebanon: 395
• fromnaming our destiny 1989: 401
• Intifada: 407
• Ghazal at Full Moon: 410
• Aftermath: 416
• Poem Instead of a Columbus Day Parade: 422
• Take Them Out: 428
• The Madison Experience: 434
• Poem Number Two on Bells Theorem or The: 440
• At Some Moment the Confidence Snaps: 443
• Poem for: 445
• Poem at the Midnight of My Life: 447
• The Female and the Silence ofa: 448
• Poem for Buddy: 449
• Smash the Church: 453
• Dont Estimate: 457
• Financial Planning: 458
• Poem for Mark: 459
• DeLiza Come to London Town 461 DeLiza and the TV News: 461
• Sometimes DeLiza: 462
• War and Memory: 463
• from harukolove poems 1994: 471
• New Year 474 For Haruko: 473
• Poem for Haruko: 474
• 01 a m Why I became a pacifist: 477
• CLEAN Update: 478
• Resolution 1003: 480
• A Poem for Haruko 1029: 481
• Admittedly 482 Boats afloat: 482
• Taiko Dojo 483 Poem about Heartbreak That Go On and: 483
• Speculations on the Present Through the Prism of the Past: 484
• Poem for Haruko: 485
• Ichiban: 486
• Phoenix Mystery: 487
• plum blossom plum jam: 494
• Poem for aYoung Poet: 501
• Argument with the Buddha: 507
• Short Takes: 517
• Haiku for the WouldBe Killers of a Teacher: 523
• Letter to Mrs Virginia Thomas Wife of Whatzhisname: 532
• The Bombing of Baghdad: 536
• Bosnia Bosnia: 542
• poem to continue a conversation: 551
• Study 2 forb b L: 557
• Poem 7 for b b L: 563
• last poems 19972001: 577
• Snowpea: 609
• Ode to the Gun Lobby: 625
• About theAuthor: 631
• For Alice Walker a summertime tanka: 636
• Scenario Revision: 637
• A Poem for All the Children: 639
• Verse after Listening to Bartók Play Bartók a Second Time or Different Ways of Tingling All Over: 641
• Bay waters rolling: 643
• Trumpet vine sneaks in: 649

About the author

June Jordan was born in Harlem. Her twenty-eight books include poetry, essays, and children's books. A beloved teacher and exuberant activist, she founded Poetry For the People, and was a regular columnist for The Progressive and a prolific writer whose articles appeared in The Village Voice, The New York Times, Ms., and Essence. She died of breast cancer in 2002.

Bibliographic information

• Title: Directed by Desire: The Collected Poems of June Jordan
• Author: June Jordan
• Publisher: Copper Canyon Press, 2007
• ISBN: 1556592345, 9781556592348
• Length: 640 pages
• Subjects: Poetry / African; Poetry / American / African American; Poetry / American / General; Social Science / Ethnic Studies / African American Studies; Social Science / Women's Studies