Debridement

Poetry. African-American Studies. This is the first complete edition of Michael S. Harper's DEBRIDEMENT, bringing together the two sections previously published under separate titles: "Song: I Want a Witness" and "Debridement." As Anthony Walton notes in his introduction, "Michael S. Harper uncovers the real and sobering truths that lie behind the myths of his native land, repossesses, in the postcolonial sense, the past of 'his people,' not necessarily black, and steels himself to reenter the never-ending field of conflict between the contending forces of progressivism and reaction for ownership of the term 'patriot' in American society." "When there is no history/ there is no metaphor/ a blind nation in a storm/ mauls its own harbors;/ sperm whale, Indian, black,/ belted in these ruins" - Michael S. Harper.