It’s the birthday of poet and Black Arts Movement member Etheridge Knight (b. 1931), whose literary career was launched when he wrote his first volume, Poems from Prison (1968), while serving an eight year sentence for armed robbery.

Knight was born in Corinth, Mississippi, dropped out of school at 16, spent some time in the seedy but language-rich world of pool halls and poker games, and then joined the U.S. Army. He served in Korea as a medical technician from 1947 to 1951 but was wounded and treated with morphine, which led to an addiction that might have begun earlier. After several years of dealing drugs and stealing, he was arrested in 1960 and incarcerated in the Indiana State Prison. Knight later said: “I died in Korea from a shrapnel wound and narcotics resurrected me. I died in 1960 from a prison sentence and poetry brought me back to life.”

Already a master of the toast—long improvised oral narrations often focused on sex, drugs, and violence, sometimes humorous, and with African American roots—Knight began to explore written poetry. He started getting to know important black poets, some of whom—like Gwendolyn Brooks—visited him in prison to discuss his poetry. Poems from Prison was published when he was released, and in 1970 he brought out an anthology, Black Voices from Prison. His poetry was both popular and critically acclaimed, and his collection Belly Song and Other Poems (1973) was nominated for both the Pulitzer and the National Book Award.

Knight’s poem, “For Malcolm, a Year After,” begins:

“Compose for Red a proper verse; / Adhere to foot and strict iamb; / Control the burst of angry words / Or they might boil and break the dam. / Or they might boil and overflow / And drench me, drown me, drive me mad. / So swear no oath, and shed no tear, / And sing no song blue Baptist sad. / Evoke no image, stir no flame, / And spin no yarn across the air. / Make empty anglo tea lace words— / Make them dead white and dry bone bare…”

(Read the rest here.)

Knight received a B.A. in American poetry and criminal justice from Martin Center University (Indianapolis) in 1990 but died of lung cancer in 1991.

Have a creatively rich day, despair not that some guys get more done from prison than you do on the outside, and stay scrupulously honest to the data.