EJS Poet-in-Residence Michael Tyler: “When I think about iconic moments in Black History, my mind immediately begins with the march on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, during which Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. delivered his best-known oration, the ‘I Have A Dream’ speech. I wrote this poem with 28 lines, in tribute to that moment, which happened on August 28, 1963.”
The Rhythm of Rectitude
By Michael Tyler, EJS Poet-in-Residence
The heart sounds the beat of life’s first drum,
Which paces the will to overcome;
And sets the cadence for freedom’s call,
That forever rings from beyond the wall,
Built high by the bricks of heartless masons,
To section off dreams and Jim Crow nations —
A tempo pulsed for heads to rise,
To keep all eyes upon the prize,
Which glows like the moon in the darkest night,
Lighting the road of what’s just and what’s right —
A perilous trail stained by blood, sweat and tears,
From the women and men who conquered their fears;
Who plodded and crawled through menacing mires
And crept by the crosses lit by the fires,
That blazed from the fuel of virulent hate
And burned to ashes the promise of great —
Those mothers and fathers of daughters and sons,
Who fled from the whip and the rope and the guns,
Who marched for our justice while risking their death,
With dignity and pride and unyielding breath;
Fed only by faith for the hunger of claims;
While some became legends, most were unknown names.
And ours is a past of prayers and survival,
Of auctioned life, from our first arrival.
And ours is a present still struggling to gain,
With the weight and rattle of bigotry’s chain.
But ours is a future now stepping to strive,
For we are determined, to keep hope alive.
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EJS commemorated the 50th Anniversary of the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom in August 2013 at the Oakland Museum. The program included a mini-reenactment of the March. Photo by Paul Sakuma.