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Michael Kleber-Diggs Biography

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“Love is history plus desire. Love is dominion. It is supposed to attack you. When you send it out, it stings you back like a slap of cold air.”

Love Pain Desire Poetry History Poem Dominion Attacks

Book:Worldly Things

Source: Worldly Things

“America is loving me to death, loving me to death slowly, and I Mainly try not to be disappeared here, knowing she won’t pledge Even tolerance in return. Dear God, I can’t offer allegiance.”

America Death Poetry Dying Poem Racism Loyalty Tolerance African Americans Allegiance

Book:Worldly Things

Source: Worldly Things

“After You Left the weight of your absence became a black hole revolving around my memory of you--itself a black hole. Wavelets wrinkled the sheer sheet of space and time. Father, the loss of you is a planet orbiting what might have been. I cannot say if the emptiness is a grand celestial body or a vacuum so complete nothing can escape. I know these forces have mass and motion that bends, calls in, ripples fabric-- distorts the pace of light for a billion years.”

Death Poetry Loss Grief Poem Mourning Fathers Death Of A Father Loss Of A Father

Book:Worldly Things

Source: Worldly Things

“Come to my funeral dressed as you would for an autumn walk in the woods. Arrive on your schedule; I give you permission to be late, even without good cause. If my day arrives when you had other plans, please proceed with them instead. Celebrate me there--keep dancing.”

Life Death Loss Mourning Funerals Celebration Of Life

Book:Worldly Things

Source: Worldly Things

“I woke to the news you were dead. The what arrived before daylight; the how was agony unfolding as I dreaded my way to dusk. Unfolding against my want not to know (but I already knew, have known since I could know): officers, arrest, Black, man, twenty, video, knee, sir, back, dollar, 8, counterfeit, hands, sorry, 46, mama, please, breathe, please! Were you tired George? I feel tired sometimes. America on my neck--my lungs compressed so much they can't expand/contract--”

Poetry Poem Racism African Americans Black Lives Matter Police Brutality Systemic Racism George Floyd

Book:Worldly Things

Source: Worldly Things

“Fog borne of fatigue, fog of early morning, of restless middle-years sleeplessness, fog of cat hair in my eye, of dog, dogs, fog of darkness, fog of dreary days under a pseudo-autocracy, funk fog of high crimes and misdemeanors, fog of my daily compulsion toward work I do not want to do.”

Poetry Poem Fog Sleeplessness

Book:Worldly Things

Source: Worldly Things

“In America there’s one winning story—no adaptations. The Story imagines a noble, grand progress where we’re all united. Like truths are as self-evident as the Declaration states. Or like they would be if not for detractors like me, the ranks of Vagabonds existing to point out what’s rotten in America, Insisting her gains come at a cost, reminding her who pays, and Negating wild notions of exceptionalism—adding ugly facts to God’s-favorite-nation mythology.”

America Poetry Poem Racism Constitution African Americans Declaration Of Independence

Book:Worldly Things

Source: Worldly Things

“My grandfather's name was Arthur, and he talked all the time about his arthritis but pronounced it autha-itis, so for months I thought it was a condition unique to him, that he had his own special burden, just like my brother and me.”

Poetry Poem Aging Burdens Arthritis Grandfathers

Book:Worldly Things

Source: Worldly Things

“Here's the deal: structural fatigue eventually causes breakdowns. I am 50 and chaos. My whole body groans.”

Poetry Poem Aging Middle Age 50 Aches Breakdowns Structural Fatigue

Book:Worldly Things

Source: Worldly Things

“My love, I make this to tell you-- you made me right: everything is amplified. Joy doubles, also pain. The endless work of the river, the haze around it.”

Love Pain Joy Poetry Marriage Poem

Book:Worldly Things

Source: Worldly Things