Toni Morrison’s Writing in a Poetic Light
Though Toni Morrison is best known as a novelist, her writing is deeply poetic in language, rhythm, and emotional depth. She did not write traditional poetry, yet her prose often reads like verse—rich with symbolism, musicality, and lyrical expression. In works like Beloved, Song of Solomon, and The Bluest Eye, Morrison uses poetic devices such as repetition, metaphor, and biblical cadence to explore themes of memory, identity, love, trauma, and the legacy of slavery.
Her words move with the rhythm of jazz and spirituals, reflecting African American oral traditions. Morrison’s language captures both pain and beauty—she gives voice to the silenced and transforms suffering into art. She uses silence, dreams, and fragmented narrative in ways that resemble poetic structure.
Therefore, while Toni Morrison may not be a poet by genre, her storytelling remains profoundly poetic—filled with emotion, imagery, and spiritual resonance.
The Perfect Ease of Grain
The perfect ease of grain
Time enough to spill
The flavor of a woman carried through the rain.
Honey-talk tongues
Down home dreams
A rushed by shapely prayer.
Evening lips part to hush
Questions raised at dawn.
The melon yields another slice.
Fingers understand.
Ecstasy becomes us all.
Red cherries become jam.
Deep juvenile sleep
A whistle trace
White shorelines in green air.
Welcome doors held open
When goodbye is “So long.”
The perfect poise of grain
Time enough to spill
The flavor of a woman remembered on a train.
Someone Leans Near
Someone leans near
And sees the salt your eyes have shed.
You wait, longing to hear
Words of reason, love or play
To lash or lull you toward the hollow day.
Silence kneads your fear
Of crumbled star-ash sifting down
Clouding the rooms here, here.
You shore up your heart to run. To stay.
But no sign or design marks the narrow way.
Then on your skin a breath caresses
The salt your eyes have shed.
And you remember a call clear, so clear
“You will never die again.”
Once more you know
You will never die again.
It Comes Unadorned
It comes
Unadorned
Like a phrase
Strong enough to cast a spell;
It comes
Unbidden,
Like the turn of sun through hills
Or stars in wheels of song.
The jeweled feet of women dance the earth.
Arousing it to spring.
Shoulders broad as a road bend to share the weight of years.
Profiles breach the distance and lean
Toward an ordinary kiss.
Bliss.
It comes naked into the world like a charm.
Eve Remembering
I tore from a limb fruit that had lost its green.
My hands were warmed by the heat of an apple
Fire red and humming.
I bit sweet power to the core.
How can I say what it was like?
The taste! The taste undid my eyes
And led me far from the gardens planted for a child
To wildernesses deeper than any master’s call.
2
Now these cool hands guide what they once caressed;
Lips forget what they have kissed.
My eyes now pool their light
Better the summit to see.
3
I would do it all over again:
Be the harbor and set the sail,
Loose the breeze and harness the gale,
Cherish the harvest of what I have been.
Better the summit to scale.
Better the summit to be.
Who Am I
I am black and I have the ability to glorify the King
I am great and in believing in him, I have authority over all things
I am the Father and Mother of past, present and future
Peacemakers, Educators, Scientists, Musicians, Scholars, Kings and Queens
I am John Love the sharpener inventor
I am Mae C. Jemison the astronaut
I am Martin Luther King the peacemaker
I am Toni Morrison a contemporary novelist.
I am Muhammad Ali the boxer
I am Wilma Rudolph the Olympic track and field champion
I am Tiger woods the golfer
I am Lucy Laney the educator.
I am Jack Johnson the heavyweight
I am Rosa Parks the segregation leader
I am Jesse Wilkins the physicist and mathematician
I am Serena Williams a tennis player.
I am Isaac Murphy the great through-bred jockey
I am Bessie Coleman the first licensed African American pilot
I am Chester Burnett the blues singer
I am Eleanor Holmes a politician and civil rights activist.
I am Thomas Dorsey the father of gospel music
I am Chadwick Boseman the famous Black Panther actor
I am Barack Obama the forty-four first
Black Afro-American president, we are the future.
We are the hope for the lost and forgotten generation.
Address Me By My Name
I am black, I am not a curse
I would appreciate if you could stop
Addressing me as the world's worse
I am a human
So there isn't any need for you to treat me inhumane
Like you, I am a person who has a name
The color of my skin should not have to make me feel a shame
Nor should it give you the right to point, stare or give blame
Yes, I am black and I have a name
I am a human
Who is not a shame to say to others
I am a person with a name
Who has the right to be treated the same
So please stop making the color of my skin an issue
I am black and I am not a shame
So please address me by my name
I am black and yes, I have a wonderful name
Like historic and symbolic people before me
Who are the same and have great names
We are black, we are the same
I am Marcus Garvey, I am black, I can succeed
I am Jackie Robinson , I am black, I can achieve
I am Muhammad Ali, I am black, I can believe
I am James Baldwin, I am black, I can overcome
I am Bob Marley, I am black, I am a conqueror
I am Toni Morrison, I am black, I am ambitious
I am black, I am ambitious, I am a conqueror
I can archive
I can believe
I can succeed
I can overcome
Being black is not who I am, it's what I am
It's an awesome color that pushes me
Towards obtaining my dreams
Tell the Stories
Zora Neal saw that Their Eyes Were Watching God, when
Toni Morrison heard The Song of Solomon, and
James Baldwin Told It on the Mountain, while
W.E.B. DuBois embraced The Souls of Black Folks
Richard Wright was a Black Boy, that’s why
Dr. Maya Angelo Knew Why the Caged Bird Sang
Iyana Vanzant found Peace Within Pieces, when
Lorraine Hansberry ate a Raisin in the Sun, while
Terry McMillian was Waiting to Exhale
