Trouble the Water
By Derrick Austin and Mary Szybist
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Trouble the Water - Derrick Austin
TROUBLE THE WATER
[image: cover]WINNER, 2015 A. POULIN, JR. POETRY PRIZE
SELECTED BY MARY SZYBIST
[image: cover]Copyright © 2016 by Derrick Austin
Foreword copyright © 2016 by Mary Szybist
All rights reserved
Manufactured in the United States of America
First Edition
16 17 18 19 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
For information about permission to reuse any material from this book please contact The Permissions Company at www.permissionscompany.com or e-mail permdude@eclipse.net.
[image: cover]Publications by BOA Editions, Ltd.—a not-for-profit corporation under section 501 (c) (3) of the United States Internal Revenue Code—are made possible with funds from a variety of sources, including public funds from the Literature Program of the National Endowment for the Arts; the New York State Council on the Arts, a state agency; and the County of Monroe, NY. Private funding sources include the Lannan Foundation for support of the Lannan Translations Selection Series; the Max and Marian Farash Charitable Foundation; the Mary S. Mulligan Charitable Trust; the Rochester Area Community Foundation; the Steeple-Jack Fund; the Ames-Amzalak Memorial Trust in memory of Henry Ames, Semon Amzalak, and Dan Amzalak; and contributions from many individuals nationwide. See Colophon on page 96 for special individual acknowledgments.
Cover Design: Sandy Knight
Cover Art: 10-79 by Diedrick Brackens
Interior Design and Composition: Richard Foerster
Manufacturing: Versa Press, Inc.
BOA Logo: Mirko
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Austin, Derrick, 1989– author.
Title: Trouble the water : poems / by Derrick Austin ; foreword by Mary Szybist.
Description: First edition. | Rochester, NY : BOA Editions Ltd., 2016. | Series: A. Poulin, Jr. New Poets of America ; 38
Identifiers: LCCN 2015046377 | ISBN 9781942683049 (paperback)
Subjects: | BISAC: POETRY / American / African American. | POETRY / Inspirational & Religious. | SOCIAL SCIENCE / Discrimination & Race Relations.
Classification: LCC PS3601.U857 T76 2016 | DDC 811/.6—dc23 LC record available at http://lccn.loc.gov/2015046377
BOA Editions, Ltd.
250 North Goodman Street, Suite 306
Rochester, NY 14607
www.boaeditions.org
A. Poulin, Jr., Founder (1938–1996)
for my parents: Derrick and Tracy
Contents
Title Page
Copyright
Dedication
Foreword
[image: cover]Tidewater Psalm
Devotions
Okaloosa
Pass-A-Grille
Breakwater
Torch Song
Blaxploitation
Bow Down
Major Arcana: Judgment
We’re Standing on the Sun
[image: cover]Catacombs of San Callisto
Sans Souci
Illumination
St. Sebastian’s Executioner
Byzantine Gold
O-P-U-L-E-N-C-E
City of Rivers:
City of Rivers
Crown Glass
Fountain Statue
Effigy Without a Body
Antaeus
Cathedral
The Bait
Little Gospels
Ghost Slipper
Conveyance
No Union
Heaven and Earth
[image: cover]Summertime
Deepwater
Apology
Persian Blue
Dominion
Jezebel
Cedars of Lebanon
Blue
Canaan
Dead Gull
[image: cover]Sleeping Alone
St. Mathew’s Pentecostal Church
Primer for Sainthood
Sweet Talk
Magnolia
Sweet Boys
Visiting Mount Calvary Cemetery
At the Grave of Zora Neale Hurston
Vespers
[image: cover]Notes
Acknowledgments
About the Author
Colophon
[image: cover]Foreword
The tonal complexity of Derrick Austin’s remarkable debut begins with its title. Trouble the Water
is, of course, a phrase from the spiritual Wade in the Water.
Wade in the water.
Wade in the water, children,
Wade in the water.
God’s a-going to trouble the water.
It is a sorrow song married to a vision of great hope and faith, conjuring the Exodus story of God parting the sea to allow the Israelites to escape enslavement in Egypt. Whether we hear the final line of this refrain as a promise of