Patricia Jabbeh Wesley

Patricia Jabbeh Wesley is a professor of English, creative writing, and African literature at Pennsylvania State University–Altoona. She immigrated to the United States with her husband and children in 1991, during the First Liberian Civil War. Wesley is the author of six collections of poetry, including Praise Song for My Children: New and Selected Poems, Becoming Ebony, and When the Wanderers Come Home (Nebraska, 2016). Kwame Dawes is a professor of literary arts at Brown University and the director and series editor of the African Poetry Book Fund. Marguerite L. Harrold is the author of Chicago House Music: Culture and Community. She is a PhD student in English (creative writing) at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln. Gabeba Baderoon is a poet and scholar. She is the author of three collections of poetry: The Dream in the Next Body, A Hundred Silences, and The History of Intimacy. She teaches at Pennsylvania State University.

• Editorial Note by Marguerite L. HarroldIntroduction by Gabeba BaderoonBefore the Palm Could Bloom: Poems of Africa (1998)AfricaII Am Not DekuahTugbakeh: A SongThe StormChild SoldierFinding My FamilyWar ChildrenWarriorHave You Been Felled?Oh Rivers: November 7, 1995What DirgeIIStrange LoversHeritageBig MaKnowingTo: Bai JabbehIn Memory of Cousin Hazel: A DirgeAfrican DeathTake Me Way BackMonrovia WomenNyanken HneThey SayI'm Still Thinking . . .Outside ChildThis Rooster Will Come Home to RoostIIIOne of These DaysMinorityMy Wife Brings Home Another HusbandSurrenderWhen I Get to HeavenI Smell HomeIn This HouseTo MichiganHomecomingEnvoiThe Visiting ArtistBecoming Ebony (2003)IMy Birth at the DoorpostI Used to Own This TownGet Out of Here, Boys!Requiem for AuntieToday Is Already Too MuchFor Marie AntoinetteIIIn the BeginningThis Is What I Tell My DaughterWar BabyThe Moon PoemThey Want to Rise UpElegy to West Point FishermenIIIComing Home to IyeehA Dirge for Charles TaylorAround the MountainsElegy for DessieTransfigurationWhen I Meet MosesFor Robert FrostThe Corrupt Shall Rise IncorruptibleWe've Done It AllThe World in Long LinesAll the Soft Things of EarthBecoming EbonyIVFor My HusbandWandering ChildSmall DesiresWhen I Rise to Look the Sunshine in Its Bare EyeA Poem for My FatherIn This TownMy Neighbors' DogsA Letter to My Brother Coming to AmericaMy New Insurance PlanThese Are the Reasons the Living LiveMT, Turning ThirteenWinter StreetA Snowwoman in Her Dying HourI Now WanderI Am Acquainted with WaitingThe River Is Rising (2007)To Set Everything RightI. Those Who SurvivedLamentation After Fourteen YearsThis Hill Will Get You ThereAt GalileeThe River Is RisingIn Case of Water LandingAfter Deer SeasonBringing ClosureOne of These Days, We Should Give Her a MedalIn MichiganMemoriesShakespeare 550Four Tibetan Monks on a Wall at the Arts CouncilTomorrow, We Will Go Out into the StreetsBlessed Are the Sinful for They Shall See GodTaking PossessionAt Point LomaII. Ruined CityRemembering SodomIn the Ruined City: A Poem for MonroviaSearching for MargaretCityWhat the Land Carver Said from the SkyUntil the Plane DropsRetrieverAll Dirges Have CeasedAn Elegy for the St. Peter's Church MassacredThe Morning After: An ElegyCeasefire Christmas—1990For Kwame NkrumahIf the World Ceases to Be NowSomething Death Cannot KnowUnder the RubbleIII. Umbilical CordsComing Home: For Besie-NyesuahWhen My Daughter Tells Me She Has a BoyfriendMonrovia RevisitedAugust 11, 2003Untitled Pieces at the Corner BarIn a Moment When the World StopsAfter the MemorialLeaving: A Poem for GeeWhile I Wait for the WarIV. WomanIn the Making of a WomanTabooA Winding TrailStoriesRuined TrailsStranger WomanMammie WataThe Women in My FamilyFor Ma Nmano Jabbeh: A DirgeTo a Mother, After PassingFor the Lucky WifeWomen at the TombPoem Written from a Single SnapshotBroken WorldWhere the Road Turns (2010)Prelude: Biography When the Wanderers Come HomeI. Love SongsLove Song Before the Sun Goes DownFor My Husband After So Many YearsLove Song Before the War EndsLove Song When Musu Answers Her LoverCheede, My Bride: A Grebo Man Laments—1985Each Waking MomentSo This Is Where the Roads MergeA Memorial for Herb Scott: One Year LaterIf I Could Write a Poem about LoveLove Song for Lost Moments of YouthWoman PrayingA Lover, Lost at SeaLove Songs of TaboosOne DayEveryone Should Die on a FridayII. TaboosIn the Beginning IIMaking Happy PeopleLast Night in My DreamMy Mother Came to Visit Me Last NightRecollectionsGhosts Don't Go Away Just Like ThatReburial: To Lament of DrumsThe Resurrection of the AncestorsA Poem Before You DieMy Auntie's Woman-Lappa HusbandStep Lightly, God: A MemorialThese Are the Ways of Our PeopleCome, the Warrior Is No MoreIII. WanderingsWe Departed Our Homelands and We Came . . .Where the Road TurnsBeen Wandering Too Long: A SongMonrovia, 2008MysteryFor My Infant Daughter Soon After BirthDeh Kon Tee (Everything Has Its Time)FacebookFor the Wandering ChildTimes GoneI Like Your WarsFuneral RehearsalAt My BackyardThere's Another New OrleansThe Sea Has No BridgeIV. TomorrowThe People Walking in DarknessSpring Is That WomanMedellin, 2007What Does It Feel Like?There's Nothing You Can DoWhat's All This Fuss About?Coming HomeTo Be a WomanThere Will Come TimeIt's Too Late NowSome Things You Never Stop Looking ForAfter So Long, We No Longer Send PhotosI Came to Your Funeral Today: A DirgeThe Queen of Sheba and the Wisdom of SolomonInequality in HellWaitingThe BlessingWhen the Wanderers Come Home (2016)Book I. Coming HomeSo I Stand HereWhat Took Us to WarErecting Stones: January 2013Looters of WarComing Home: A Poem for MTSend Me Some Black ClothesI Need Two BodiesThe CreationAnd You Tell Me This Is a Funeral?LossIf You Have Never Been MarriedBecoming GhostThe Killed OnesThe Cities We LostA City of GhostsJuly RainI Go HomeSong for Mariam MakebaWhen Monrovia RisesThis Is the Real LeavingBook II. Colliding WorldsIn My DreamSometimes, I Close My EyesSandy: Love Song for the Hurricane WomanTsunami: A Song for an Unknown Young ManFor My Children, Growing Up in AmericaYou Wouldn't Let Me Adopt My Dog: A Poem for Ade-JuahWhen I Grow UpThe Inequality of DogsMedellin from My Hotel Room BalconyMorocco, on the Way to LondonTo Libya: February 2011Sometimes I WonderThe Deer on My LawnLeaves Are Leaving Us AgainBook III. World (Un)/BreakableI Want to Be the WomanThis MorningWhen I Was a GirlI'm Afraid of EmptinessSilenceI Want EverythingFinally, the AllergistI DreamedOn the Midnight TrainFirst ClassThis Is FacebookA Room with a ViewBraiding HairLosing HairHair2014, My Mamma Never Knew YouPraise Song for My Children: New and Selected Poems (2020)Some of Us Are Made of SteelPraise Song for My ChildrenGraceI Saw Men Leaving My MotherFire and RainPraise Song for Sister Marie Morais-GarberNovember 12, 2015The New Year: 2018Holding BackAt the BorderlineMaybeThey Killed a Black Man in Brooklyn TodayOn September 11The Unbuckling: A DirgeToo Many Chickens Are Coming Home to RoostAfter the ElectionPoem Written from Failed Chat NotesThe Meeting PlacePoem Written in My Doctor's OfficeSuburbiaTSA CheckThe Woman Next DoorAn Elegy for Art SmithWhen I Meet My AncestorsSource AcknowledgmentsGlossary

"Today [Patricia Jabbeh] Wesley is among the most celebrated poets of the new African diaspora. . . . Wesley is a rare figure: an African woman poet who has received high honors and become a public figure whose words have reshaped the public and literary discourse about Liberia. . . . It has taken years for her to arrive at the position she holds. She has had to navigate an inability in many to imagine an African poet of her gifts and presence. But her work has overcome this and created the future she foresaw as a child."—Gabeba Baderoon, from the introduction