Michael S. Harper

Michael Steven Harper (born March 18, 1938) is an American poet from Brooklyn, who was the Poet Laureate of Rhode Island from 1988 to 1993. He has published ten books of poetry, two of which - Dear John, Dear Coltrane (1970) and Images of Kin (1977) - have been nominated for the National Book Award. A great deal of his poetry is influenced by jazz and history. Many of his poems have been included as important examples of African-American literature and jazz poetry in various anthologies. Harper often writes about his wife, Shirley (commonly referred to as "Shirl"), their children, their ancestors, as well as friends and various black historical and cultural figures.

Famous quotes containing the words michael s. harper, michael s, michael and/or harper:

“A woman who’d lost her first son
consoled us with an angel gone ahead
to pray for our family—
gone into that sky
seeking oxygen,
gone into autopsy,”
—Michael S. Harper (b. 1938)

“We assume
you did not know we loved you.”
—Michael S. Harper (b. 1938)

“Lisa Fremont: Surprise is the most important element of attack. And besides, you’re not up on your private eye literature. When they’re in trouble it’s always their girl Friday who gets them out of it.
L.B. Jeffries: Well, is she the girl who saves him from the clutches of the seductive show girls and the over passionate daughters of the rich?
Lisa Fremont: The same.
L.B. Jeffries: That’s the one, huh? But he never ends up marrying her, does he? That’s strange.”
—John Michael Hayes (b. 1919)

“When Abraham Lincoln penned the immortal emancipation proclamation he did not stop to inquire whether every man and every woman in Southern slavery did or did not want to be free. Whether women do or do not wish to vote does not affect the question of their right to do so.”
—Mary E. Haggart, U.S. suffragist. As quoted in History of Woman Suffrage, vol. 4, ch. 3, by Susan B. Anthony and Ida Husted Harper (1902)