Trouble the Water

By Derrick Austin and Mary Szybist

Rich in religious and artistic imagery, Trouble the Water is an intriguing exploration of race, sexuality, and identity, particularly where self-hood is in constant flux. These intimate, sensual poems interweave pop culture and history—moving from the Bible through several artistic eras—to interrogate what it means to be, as Austin says, fully human as a “queer, black body” in 21st century America.

• Language: English
• Publisher: BOA Editions Ltd.
• Release date: Apr 18, 2016
• ISBN: 9781942683056

Book preview

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TROUBLE THE WATER

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WINNER, 2015 A. POULIN, JR. POETRY PRIZE

SELECTED BY MARY SZYBIST

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Copyright © 2016 by Derrick Austin

Foreword copyright © 2016 by Mary Szybist

All rights reserved

Manufactured in the United States of America

First Edition

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For information about permission to reuse any material from this book please contact The Permissions Company at www.permissionscompany.com or e-mail [e-mail].

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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

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Tidewater Psalm

Devotions

Okaloosa

Pass-A-Grille

Breakwater

Torch Song

Blaxploitation

Bow Down

Major Arcana: Judgment

We’re Standing on the Sun

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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

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Summertime

Deepwater

Apology

Persian Blue

Dominion

Jezebel

Cedars of Lebanon

Blue

Canaan

Dead Gull

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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

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Notes

Acknowledgments

About the Author

Colophon

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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