The American Poet Who Went Home Again

"It seems strange that a person should have to travel thousands of miles to learn something particularly significant about his own hometown. But that's exactly what happened to me when I was stationed as a U.S. Air Force journalist at Eielson AFB in Alaska years ago. It was there that I discovered in an old copy of National Geographic that my hometown of Savannah, Georgia, was one of the most popular tourist destinations in the world. Having grown up there in a project called Hitch Village and in other parts of the city, I could not understand why.

"Then I returned years later amidst all the fanfare surrounding Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil (the movie as well as the book), the phenomenal growth of the Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD), and the election of the city's first African-American mayor. I learned a lot about the Historic District's celebrated architecture and how fortunate Savannah had been that General Sherman had refrained from burning the city down during the Civil War.

"Once out of the Air Force, it was my intention to visit family and friends for a few weeks and then move on to other possibilities. Fate, however, had different plans for my life and one year rolled into another. As I gained some notice as a writer, friends and readers sometimes asked when I planned to write my "Savannah book" since everyone else, including many who were not native to the city, seemed to have done so. Without realizing that I in fact had already started writing my "Savannah book," I usually answered that I didn't believe I ever would because I usually thought more in world literary terms than regional. But then guess what?

"Remaining in Savannah led me to do two things: 1) I spent a decade as my mother's caregiver prior to her passing and therefore came to interact with my family on levels I never had before. 2) I met some of my hometown's most extraordinary citizens and enjoyed the great honor of writing about them. Some, like celebrated photographer Jack Leigh, have since passed. Others, like Dr. Abigail Jordan, founder of Savannah's African-American Monument and the national Consortium of Doctors, are still with us.

"Suddenly, with a unique combination of stories examining my personal journey as a caregiver and writer, set in contrast to profiles of remarkable individuals and families, The American Poet Who Went Home Again seemed to breathe itself to life. Adding even more depth and substance to that life were several writers with whom I'd connected on AuthorsDen and who allowed me to include writings by them that further defined my ongoing journey. All lent their voices to the creation of my "Savannah book" and astonished this author by making its pages sing with a literary harmony all its own."

Author-Poet Aberjhani

INTRODUCTION

PART ONE: RETURN TO SAVANNAH

1. Return to Savannah 1
2. This Mother's Son 5
3. Thorns of Sorrow and Blossoms of Grace 16
4. The Us That Never Was 29
5. Strength to Carry On 40

PART TWO: MEETINGS WITH REMARKABLE GEORGIANS

6. The Keepers' of Their People's Spirits 57
7. The Bridge and the Monument: A Tale of Two Legacies
76
8. Bound Moments: Jack Leigh's Beautiful Southern
Adventures 91
9. The Hard Stuff 109
10. The Light and The Way of Luther E. Vann 120

PART THREE: WORDS AND BLOOD

11. "Savannah Moss" by Jerry P. Bolton 141
12. The American Poet Who Went Home Again 144
13. Words and Blood Burning the Page 165
14. The Great Old Man Mystical Poet on the Mountain 175
15. With Love, A Letter From Yesterday to Today 184
16. Eyes Like Oceans of Infinite Love 190
17. Journey through 'Universes Beyond the Invisible" 197

PART FOUR: THIS WORK THAT POETS DO

18. "The Onyx of Savannah" by Andre Emmanuel Bendavi
ben-YEHU 213
19. Encyclopedia of the Harlem Renaissance 215
20. Tales of Harlem Down in Savannah 222
21. Visions of the Poets: Andre Emmanuel Bendavi
ben-YEHU 232
22. Twenty-nine Birds on a Wire 248
23. February 15, 2003: the History that Peace Made
256

The American Poet Who Went Home Again is a book of creative nonfiction that blends memoir, literary journalism, history, and biography to tell the story of one writer's rediscovery of his family, his hometown of Savannah, Georgia, and himself. It is composed of four sections containing collectively 19 chapters and 3 introductory poems for a total of 73,756 words.

Section one, titled "Return to Savannah," opens with the famous poem of the same name. It is followed by the expanded uncut version of "This Mother's Son," which first appeared in ESSENCE Magazine in 1997, helping to launch a national dialogue on care giving and on the relationship between African-American mothers and sons. The stories "Thorns of Sorrow and Blossoms of Grace," "The 'Us' That Never Was," and "Strength to Carry On" take readers deeper inside the pains and joys of a family challenged by murder, suicide, estrangement, and personal sacrifice.

Section two, "Meetings with Remarkable Georgians," shifts focus from the author's family life to that of surrounding people and places. "The Keepers of their People's Spirits" introduces readers to the incredible Moran family of Harris Neck, Georgia. Although the Moran family lost thousands of acres of land to the U.S. government during World War II, it held onto a different kind of legacy in the form of an African song handed down to Mary Moran by her mother, and one that ultimately led the family on a powerful journey to their ancestral homeland in Sierra Leone. "The Bridge and the Monument" contrasts the lives of former Georgia governor Eugene Talmadge, a champion of white supremacy, and Dr. Abigail Jordan, modern-day founder of Savannah's African-American Monument Committee. "Bound Moments: Jack Leigh's Beautiful Southern Adventures," "The Hard Stuff," and "The Light and the Way of Luther E. Vann," explore the lives and visions of three unique creative artists: one a photographer, one a writer, and one a painter.

Of the four sections in this book, the third, "Words and Blood," is the most explicitly autobiographical. It includes the title story, which actually goes beyond the autobiographical to present what is possibly the only historical account of Savannah's largest housing project. The last story of this section, "Journey through 'Universes Beyond the Invisible'," concludes the story that began with "This Mother's Son."

The final section four, "This Work that Poets Do," begins with writer Andre Emmanuel Bendavi ben-YEHU's poem, "The Onyx of Savannah," a portrait in verse of this author's life and work. The first essay in the section is the introduction from Encyclopedia of the Harlem Renaissance. The second examines the work of the gifted Bendavi ben-YEHU. The book concludes with "Twenty-nine Birds on a Wire," and "February 15, 2003: the History that Peace Made," contrasting looks at the nature of war and peace in the modern world.