His long life afforded him the perspective to look back and assess his significant contribution to the long climb of humanity toward its highest potential, and he could be “content/ to have been of some service.” Dennis Brutus always strove to assert with unyielding vitality his vision of brighter possibilities for the future, yet with an acknowledgement that all his words and images may be “small bright dead leaves in a playful dance.” But his poems amply testify that Brutus’s voice, like Shelley’s West Wind, will stir those leaves and “quicken a new birth” and revitalize this “unawakened earth.” Many thanks are due those who made this publication possible.
Although a number of poems in this edition were written during the past fifteen years, many of the poems are recent, and contain an elegiac tone, a darker note that arose naturally as Brutus’s long and productive career approached its autumnal ripening, singing of “how unforgiving are the body’s needs,” and heralding the ineluctable “arrival of oblivion.” The fire of his political activism never cooled, and in many of his most recent poems his voice stubbornly refused to give up hope for a better world. The scholarly reader is directed to the College’s website for his detailed description of the variety and the extent of manuscripts in the collection. Appended to this edition is Wayne’s overview of the Collection’s holdings. Preface to the Third Edition Many of the new poems in this gathering of the poetry by Dennis Brutus have been uncovered in Worcester State College’s Dennis Brutus Collection by Wayne Kamin, who is currently archiving the extensive material in the collection. Just think how fortunate we are to have him come our way. Dennis’s work and his stubborn hope live on in all of us who knew him. Until the end, he wrote verse and fostered peace. During his lifetime, Dennis Brutus was our teacher, mentor, colleague, comrade and friend. His goals remained the same: compassion, understanding, truth, and an equitable, fair shake for all in access to health, safety, food, shelter, and the opportunity and right for the enhancement of ours and the Earth’s well-being without doing harm to others. As Dennis was so fondly compelled to say– “A luta continua ” the struggle continues. In every instance, the message was the same.
Even more ubiquitous was his poetry with its characteristic detail, color, rhythm, passion, shout and restraint. Along the way, and at every turn was his eloquent, scholarly, reasoned and unassailable prose. Post-apartheid South Africa, the release of prisoners of conscience and those under the death penalty, sweatshops, environmental and economic justice, and so much more never failed to rouse and enlist him. Dennis organized ad-hocs, letter writings, petitions, and public protests for the greater good. And let’s not forget all the international forums. It included the smallest of school classes in Malawi, Brixton, Chicago’s South Side, or Kyoto.
The occasion might have been to one elderly Austin woman in her home. He never hesitated to speak with and read poems to any gathering. In Memory of Dennis Brutus (1924-2009) Dennis Brutus’s work and legacy speak not only of the man and his times, but also of times preceding the pleasure and challenge of his company, and of time beyond, all of which, as he often paraphrased, will be longer than the binding rope of repression. Publications and Printing Services Worcester State College Press Third Edition 2010 None of the material in this booklet may be reproduced or reprinted without the express authorization of Worcester State College. The poems in this booklet are from the Dennis Brutus Collection at Worcester State College, Worcester, Massachusetts. Introduction by Ken Gibbs Coedited by Ken Gibbs and Wayne Kamin Tributes by Merrill Goldwyn POEtry and human rights: Poems by Dennis Brutusĭennis Brutus Collection Worcester State College Worcester, Massachusetts
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