April 22: Harriet Tubman, Robert Hayden, "Runagate Runagate"

I've saved my favorite Robert Hayden poem for last.

This one is about Harriet Tubman, a woman who once said, "I freed a thousand slaves.  I could have freed a thousand more if only they knew they were slaves."  I love that quote.  It really speaks to the inability of human beings to recognize their own shackles.  To dream of something better.

Saint Marty believes in dreams.

Runagate Runagate

by:  Robert Hayden

I.

Runs falls rises stumbles on from darkness into darkness

and the darkness thicketed with shapes of terror

and the hunters pursuing and the hounds pursuing

and the night cold and the night long and the river

to cross and the jack-muh-lanterns beckoning beckoning

and blackness ahead and when shall I reach that somewhere

morning and keep on going and never turn back and keep on going

                Runagate

                              Runagate

                                            Runagate

Many thousands rise and go

many thousands crossing over

                                                           O mythic North

                                               O star-shaped yonder Bible city

Some go weeping and some rejoicing

some in coffins and some in carriages

some in silks and some in shackles

                 Rise and go or fare you well

No more auction block for me

no more driver’s lash for me

         If you see my Pompey, 30 yrs of age,

         new breeches, plain stockings, negro shoes;

         if you see my Anna, likely young mulatto

         branded E on the right cheek, R on the left,

         catch them if you can and notify subscriber.

         Catch them if you can, but it won’t be easy.

         They’ll dart underground when you try to catch them,

         plunge into quicksand, whirlpools, mazes,

         turn into scorpions when you try to catch them.

And before I’ll be a slave

I’ll be buried in my grave

         North star and bonanza gold

         I’m bound for the freedom, freedom-bound

         and oh Susyanna don’t you cry for me

                                 Runagate

  

                                               Runagate

          II.

Rises from their anguish and their power,

                                       Harriet Tubman,

                                       woman of earth, whipscarred,

                                       a summoning, a shining

                                       Mean to be free

          And this was the way of it, brethren brethren,

          way we journeyed from Can’t to Can.

          Moon so bright and no place to hide,

          the cry up and the patterollers riding,

          hound dogs belling in bladed air.

          And fear starts a-murbling, Never make it,

          we’ll never make it. Hush that now,

          and she’s turned upon us, levelled pistol

          glinting in the moonlight:

          Dead folks can’t jaybird-talk, she says;

          you keep on going now or die, she says.

Wanted     Harriet Tubman     alias The General

alias Moses     Stealer of Slaves

In league with Garrison     Alcott     Emerson

Garrett     Douglas     Thoreau     John Brown

Armed and known to be Dangerous

Wanted     Reward     Dead or Alive

          Tell me, Ezekiel, oh tell me do you see

          mailed Jehovah coming to deliver me?

Hoot-owl calling in the ghosted air,

five times calling to the hants in the air.

Shadow of a face in the scary leaves,

shadow of a voice in the talking leaves:

          Come ride-a my train

          Oh that train, ghost-story train

          through swamp and savanna movering movering,

          over trestles of dew, through caves of the wish,

          Midnight Special on a sabre track movering movering,

          first stop Mercy and the last Hallelujah.

          Come ride-a my train

                   Mean mean mean to be free.