Preface to a Twenty Volume Suicide Note by Amiri Baraka (Everett LeRoi Jones/Imamu Amear Baraka)

Lately, I’ve become accustomed to the way
The ground opens up and envelopes me
Each time I go out to walk the dog.
Or the broad edged silly music the wind
Makes when I run for a bus…

Things have come to that.

And now, each night I count the stars.
And each night I get the same number.
And when they will not come to be counted,
I count the holes they leave.

Nobody sings anymore.

And then last night I tiptoed up
To my daughter’s room and heard her
Talking to someone, and when I opened
The door, there was no one there…
Only she on her knees, peeking into

Her own clasped hands.

From: http://www.english.illinois.edu/maps/poets/a_f/baraka/onlinepoems.htm

Date: 1961

By: Amiri Baraka (Everett LeRoi Jones/Imamu Amear Baraka) (1934-2014)