Black Men Are Precious

2022 Grammy Nomination: Best Spoken Poetry Album Featuring 11 Poems, 18 MINUTES Track List Track 1: Black Men are Precious (2:04) Track 2: Jazz and Sex Education (1:0) Track 3: Crossing the Line (1:14) Track 4: Hell’s Kitchen (1:07) Track 5: Einstein (1:08) Track 6: Letting Go (1:44) Track 7: Suddenly (1:48) Track 8: Ken Griffey Sr. (1:21) Track 9: Every Buddhist is a Baseball Player (1:32 Track 10: Death of a Ball Player in 9 Innings (3:36) Track 11: Devine Love (1:23) “Black Men Are Precious” circa 2022 E. Ethelbert Miller Black men, black friends having strokes. Black men younger than me. Good men with bad hearts. Men who did not follow their fathers into factories or the post-office. Black men who went off to college and pulled themselves up by degrees. Men who did not sink into despair but lifted their families into new homes. Black men who survived the bullets, streets and police. Black men who saw the horizon and the stars. They marched as if Garvey held out his hand not to Ethiopia but to our hearts. Black hearts now failing for unknown reasons. Why? Why do we die so young? Why are we not like our grandfathers sitting on the porch rocking away the years? Why are we not the black men returning from the wars and lifting our girlfriends up into wives again? Why do we date this early death? After all the exercise and pills, after the changing diet why is there such a cruel hunger that appears and takes our years? Black men, my friends resting in their open coffins waiting for someone to sing “Precious Lord” and take their hand. Black hands closing with so much love still left to give.