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POEM: I Cannot Threaten Death (a poem for MLK)

Listen to this poem using the player above.

On April 4, 1967, Martin Luther King, Jr. gave one of his most important speeches, “Beyond Vietnam.” (You can read or listen to the speech here.)

In 2010, I used the text of that speech to make an erasure poem called “I Cannot Threaten Death.” In other words, I printed out the complete text and then erased most of the words. I kept the remaining words in their original order.

You can hear me read this poem by clicking on the player above. The recording is from my January 5, 2011, reading at Caffe Lena in Saratoga Springs, NY. You can also download a PDF of the poem.

Published in My poems Poetry Politics & Activism

6 Comments

  1. Kathy Kathy

    Awesome. You are Awesome!!

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