by Pat Parker
Black people dodging billy clubs,
Being swept down streets by fire hoses
Giving up limbs to police dogs
And dying—being hung, mutilated, destroyed
I’ve learned that women
are beaten, raped, murdered,
stepped over, stepped on, stomped
impoverished & dehumanized
I watched men like
Martin, Medgar, & Malcolm fall
and see Nazis and skinheads rise
I watched a government shrug it’s shoulders
while AIDS run wild in the streets
and dope disseminates the minds
and bodies of children.
The white man has tried to convince me
that slaves were happy,
that negroes preferred segregation
and woman love to be dominated by men.
Now he wants me to ignore
the smog in my air—
the pesticides on my food—
the asbestos radon in my house
the madness in my society—
and believe—
I have cancer cause
I want it—
yeah.
Trying to do how mama did can un Do you
Prologue
I don’t know about you,
I know about me—
I remember— as a child
watching my mama—
and I came to certain
Conclusions.
Her life was not going
to be mine—
Call it childish clarity
or aimful ambition
one thing for certain
I wasn’t going to be like my mama,
What I didn’t know
couldn’t seem to see—there was
no way that could ever be
Now I have to admit
with a lot more respect
Trying to do how mama did it
can undo you.
I.
Trying to do
How mama did
Can undo you
Remember when she said
some day you’ll
mark my words
I remember
Mama used to
work washing floors
Then she came home
and cooked dinner
and cleaned house
and was mama
That’s simple stuff
until you do it
I, first realized
Mama’s power
I tried
to cook a
pot of gumbo
Gumbo—
a southern
dish consisting
of seafood,
sausage, okra, and
chicken, served
over rice—
a working class
bouillabaise
Mama’s gumbo
drove me nuts
I couldn’t get
it dirty—
Could NOT find
that dishwater look
Mama didn’t believe
in writing recipes
called her up once
and asked—
how do I cook this?
Well daughter,
you take a
pinch of this
and a little
less than a
handful of that
and a smidgen
of . . .
I tried though
Got 2nd degree burns
from hot water cornbread—
ruined a whole sack of
potatoes trying to get
sweet potato salad—
and biscuits and gravy . . .
Trying to do
how mama
did can
un Do
you
II.
Mama used
to be off on Tuesday
I’d come from
school and the
house would be
gleaming—
Food on the stove— And
all the drawers
filled with
fresh washed,
clothes—
Closets filled
with ironed
and starched
blouses and
dresses,
immaculate—
At first she washed
by hand — a
scrub board and
a tin tub
later — She got
a washer—
finger type—
never did use
a dryer
except the sun.
I tried, mama
I got up early on my
day off— Gathered
the clothes—
Loaded the washer
Then swept all
the floors — broke
out the mop & 409 —
the oven cleaner —
the sponges —
Mama used
to make her
own soap
Put the second
load in the washer
Folded the first
Started scrubbing
the kitchen cabinets —
Mama used to
scrub all the
walls— wash
the venetian blinds
and can fruits &
vegetables on
her day off
I got the kitchen cleaned—
smiled at the like
Sun on a waxed fender
but it was 1 o’clock
and I was exhausted—
Trying to do
like mama did
can undo you
III.
After work,
She’d come home
cook dinner and
wait on Daddy
hand and foot
A man’s home
is his castle, child
keep it well and
he won’t stray
When I first got married
I’d run home from work
Cook dinner —
but after a while
that got too tacky
He wanted ironed
shirts, starched.
Dinner ready at
7. And wanted
me to go to bed
with him too.
Mama used
to iron the sheets
and Daddy’s shorts
too.
I finally decided
that either mama
was an amazon
or nuts or
Daddy was crazy
but my old man had to go.
Trying to do
like mama
did can
undo you
IV.
I like kids,
I love my daughter
but sometimes —
She drives me nuts
Mama had 8
kids — 3
died in childhood
At least once,
every other week
the kid runs out
of socks or panties—
or they get lost—
I don’t know how
but she loses them
Every Tuesday
all our clothes
were put in
our drawers
for the week
socks matched—
on the right
underwear
on the left.
ironed blouses
folded in
the middle.
I try to cook
balance meals
but sometimes
I have to break
out the hot dogs
and chili — or
get pizza or
Kentucky fried—
I’m just too
whipped to cook.
Mama raised
five — I had
my first take out
food when I was 17
on a trip to California
V.
“It’s nice to be
nice”
I hated that expression
when my sisters took my things
and I took revenge
“It’s nice to be
nice”
When my friends broke my toys
and I tried to break their faces
“It’s nice to be
nice”
When my father punished
me for nothing— and I
sulked for 3 days.
“It’s nice to be
nice”
I decided one week
to do like mama
did—
no matter what was said,
no matter what deed done,
I would respond with kindness
I got a parking ticket—
The bank lost my paycheck—
My fender got crushed
in the parking lot,
when I started parking
to avoid getting any more
parking tickets.
I got cut in front of,
in the supermarket line.
I started getting an
ulcer—
Decided to respond
in kind—
Trying to do
like mama did—
can un do you
What’s certain for sure
is I am not my mama—
Things she did—
I cannot do—
but I do a few things
Mama couldn’t do
She never saw a subway
or knew how to fend off a pass
or balance a check book
or tell a racist to
kiss her ass
Yeah — mama and I
are different folk
move through life
in stranger ways
but I’ve always
loved her
and now I
know — respect
is due her
for the way she did—
I’m a witness
these facts are true
Trying to do—
like mama did
can undo you.
Note from the Editor
The Complete Works of Pat Parker gathers all of Pat Parker’s published work from two books (Movement in Black and Jonestown & Other Madness) and three chapbooks (Child of Myself, Pit Stop, and Womanslaughter) with other previously unpublished poems, two plays, and a handful of prose essays. The Complete Works of Pat Parker is the most comprehensive presentation of Parker’s work. In this Note, I outline how and why I made various decisions in assembling this text and point to some future directions for Parker scholarship.
Pat Parker’s Movement in Black was her protean work, her most frequently published and widely distributed book. Parker first assembled Movement in Black in 1978. Diana Press published it in a cloth edition along side Judy Grahn’s The Work of a Common Woman. The publishers of Diana Press, Coletta Reid and Casey Czarnik, wanted to ensure that the west coast feminist voices of Parker and Grahn were as visible as east coast poets Audre Lorde and Adrienne Rich. Lorde wrote the introduction to Parker’s Movement in Black. Rich wrote the introduction to Grahn’s The Work of a Common Woman. Shortly after publication, Diana Press encountered difficulties; by early 1979, the press ceased operations. This development curtailed the circulation of both Parker’s and Grahn’s books. In 1983, Crossing Press published a second edition of Movement in Black as a paperback using the original plates. After Parker’s death in 1989, Nancy Bereano of Firebrand Books published a third edition from the original plates of the Diana Press and Crossing Press editions; the release of this third edition in 1990 corresponded with what would have been Parker’s forty-sixth birthday, January 20, 1990. In 1999, Bereano published a commemorative edition of Movement in Black on the tenth anniversary of Parker’s death; it featured tributes to Parker by Donna Allegra, Angela Y. Davis, Toi Derricotte, Jewelle Gomez, Audre Lorde, Michelle Parkerson, Ann Allen Shockley, Barbara Smith, Pamela Sneed, and Evelyn C. White. Cheryl Clarke wrote the “Introduction.”
The title poem, “Movement in Black,” is a poem and a spoken word / performance piece. Alberta Jackson, Pat Parker, Vicki Randle, Linda Tillery, and Mary Watkins first performed “Movement in Black” at the Oakland Auditorium on December 2-3, 1977. Parker performed “Movement in Black” with other women during the following year on the “Varied Voices of Black Women” tour organized by Olivia Records. As a poet, Parker performed on the page and the stage—as well as on vinyl. The album, Where Would I Be Without You, featured Parker and Grahn reading from their work.
For The Complete Works of Pat Parker, Movement in Black remains a centerpiece of Parker’s work. The poems of Movement in Black open this book. The 1978/1983/1990 editions of Movement in Black are all identical except for front matter; these editions are the basis of the presentation of poems from Movement in Black for this edition. The “New Poems” from the 1999 edition are reproduced as they appear in that edition. Following Movement in Black is the complete reproduction of Jonestown & Other Madness. Jonestown has been less in the public eye as representative of Parker’s work, but this collection of poetry is extraordinary; Parker blends the documentary, narrative, and lyrical impulses of poetry in powerful ways in this work.
Following these two collections are four sections of additional work by Parker. Parker wrote a number of prose pieces, both fiction and creative non-fiction; many are collected here. She wrote two plays; both, “Hard Time” and “Pinocle” are presented here. “Restored Poems” appeared in Parker’s earlier chapbooks, but she omitted them from Movement in Black when she assembled it in 1978. An appendix contains the tables of contents for Child of Myself, Pit Stop, and Womanslaughter with notes about these editions. Using these tables and the “Restored Poems,” readers can revisit Parker’s earlier ordering of the poems.
“Uncollected Poems” have not appeared in Parker’s previously published books. Many of these poems were published or performed during Parker’s lifetime. These poems appear in roughly chronological order according to when she composed them. They are divided into three sections, 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s. Where possible, I have indicated the approximate year of composition; a “m” indicates the poem existed in manuscript form only; a “p” indicates that Parker published the poem.” Some critics may question to decision to publish some of the previously unpublished materials. Through feminist and lesbian publications, Parker had many opportunities to publish her work; what remained unpublished may have been incomplete in her eyes. That may be true, but during the final two years of her life, illness hampered Parker´s creative production and her ability to publish and promote her work. The breadth of creative output collected here demonstrates the seriousness of Parker’s overall work as a writer. Beginning in 1963, when she was nineteen years old, and continuing until she died in 1989, Parker took her work as a writer seriously. Gathering as much of it as possible into a single volume invites readers to take it seriously as well.
There are a few notable omissions from this collection. In Parker’s papers, there are numerous typewritten manuscript pages for a novel that she was writing at the time of her death. This manuscript is worth further examination. During her final months, Parker went to Washington, DC, to speak at a lesbian conference. A fair copy of this speech “Aging and Ageism in a Multicultural Multiracial Lesbian Society,” is available in her archives; it merits further attention.
As these omissions indicate, despite the title, this collection is not, in fact, complete. Throughout the end notes are flags of missing materials and suggestions about where additional textual and scholarly work on Parker remains. I hope that other readers, writers, and critics will engage with Parker and her archives at The Arthur and Elizabeth Schlesinger Library on the History of Women in America to discover and share a more complete understanding o
f her legacy. While complete may be a misnomer, this edition is the most complete assembly of Pat Parker’s work to date; it invites readers to dig deeper into her rich creative output.
The end notes that follow have two objectives. First, they provide helpful guidance to readers encountering Parker for the first time. Explanations of allusions and references in the text are in the end notes as well as suggestions for additional reading. Second, the end notes provide space for me to be transparent about how I edited this book. I invite readers to interrogate rigorously my decisions in the creation of the text. Editing an author’s work posthumously is a fraught project. Editorial power is not to be used lightly, particularly for a white woman, like me, editing an African-American woman, like Parker. Through the end notes, I highlight where I made editorial choices and, particularly where I made line edits, changing what was in the original, published text or in manuscript.
Close engagements with Parker’s work convince me even more of her significance as a poet and writer and of her compelling vision as an artist. Parker worked hard throughout her life to fulfill her artistic calling. She left behind an impressive corpus for readers and writers to engage. I hope that this book honors her and her work.
Julie R. Enszer, PhD
May 2016
End Notes
Two images appeared in Movement in Black: Aya and Nkyimkyim. Aya is “the fern, a symbol of defiance.” It is the separate mark between sections in the table of contents of this book. Nkyimkyim is “twisted pattern, meaning changing one’s self or playing many parts.” It appears as the separator mark between sections of Movement in Black.
Movement in Black
General Notes
The text from Movement in Black is from the 1978/83/90 editions, which all appear to have used the same plates, though each was published by a different publisher.
The 1999 edition of Movement in Black includes substantial changes to the poems, including the addition of many titles to poems previously untitled.
While this text shows fealty to the text in the 1978/83/90 editions, I insert em dashes where earlier texts used hyphens. Typography and typesetting have evolved substantially since the first assembly of Movement in Black in 1978. Readers’ engagements with screens, word processing programs, and other digital tools create new expectations for typesetting and design. Where the hyphens used in the 1978/83/90 editions suggest space and a breath for readers in those eras, readers today are more sensitive to em dashes, en dashes, hyphens and their divergent gestures. The em dash seems overall more inline with the type of pause that Parker imagined for readers.