"On Preparing to Teach the Poems of Jericho Brown"

What do I know about being a black man?
I read his poetry, have read the poetry
Of other black men and black women,
But what do I know about the blackness
Of life, me with my white skin, white
Life. Sure, I've been asked if I'm a
Jew, Greek, even been asked once
"What are you then?" but that doesn't
Cut me any slack for talking about black.
Soon I will join my friends, mostly white,
And we will talk about this black man's
Poetry, talk about themes, and images
And we will feel like we have some sense
Of what the poetry is all about, but how
Can we know in all our whiteness,
How can we imagine in all our safety,
What it's really like to be black?

Stifler, Bill. "On Preparing to Teach the Poems of Jericho Brown." The Misfit Quill, June 2020.