Never Catch Me

By Darius Simpson

2023 Midwest Book Award Winner

2023 Next Generation Indie Book Awards Finalist


Darius Simpson’s debut collection Never Catch Me centers on Black boyhood in the midwest and familial disintegration over time. Simpson pulls back the curtain, exposing the violence enacted against and upon, Black bodies, and yet, still, each poem is saturated in revolution and hope. Never Catch Me is the anthem necessary to organize a community that is committed to a better right now–one that can only be achieved with an intensity and action that goes far beyond the page.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Button Poetry
• Release date: Oct 25, 2022
• ISBN: 9781638340553

Darius Simpson

Darius Simpson is a writer, educator, performer, and skilled living room dancer from Akron, Ohio. Much like the means of production, he believes poetry belongs to and with the masses. He aims to inspire those chills that make you frown and slightly twist up ya face in approval. Darius believes in the dissolution of the empire and the total liberation of Afrikans and all oppressed people by any means available. Free The People. Free The Land. Free All Political Prisoners.

Book preview

PRAISE FOR DARIUS SIMPSON

"Following in the footsteps of the earth-shaking Revolutionary writings of the ‘60s and ‘70s, Never Catch Me is at once a book of dynamic poetry, brutally honest self-reflection, and a call to consistent Revolutionary action. Simpson combines a dynamic ability to manipulate language with humor, sarcasm, suspense and transparency to create this bold and necessary work.

This book requires readers to reflect on who we are, who we are not, and who we wish to become in the fight towards liberation of all oppressed peoples. This is a damn good book that students, educators, long time lovers of poetry and those new to the craft will return to again and again."

—Imani Cezanne, 2020 Woman of the World Poetry Slam Champion

"Never Catch Me belongs in the throat of every megaphone, each line, an anthem; a heart-crafted survival map; an elegy; a timely call to action finessed with acute wordplay. To be Black and alive with this brilliant collection of poems in hand is a gentle reminder that ‘...my people make outfit accessories outta silver lining.’ Simpson’s work is boisterous, urgent, and unintentionally holy."

—Janae Johnson, author of Lessons on Being Tenderheaded

"In these pages, a two-step is a righteous rhythm bucking against the one & three count of the illegitimate state. Here, love is both a war drum and unclenched scraped knuckles. Not only do the poems in Never Catch Me chronicle, but they’re an urgent call to action. For what is a revolution without dancing? Here is the cadence, a reverent masterpiece!"

—Daniel B. Summerhill, author of Divine, Divine, Divine &

Mausoleum of Flowers

"Never Catch Me is a family reunion with the cousins you like best. It’s a road trip with beloved friends and the best playlist. The poems are thicc and rich with music. It’s an affirmation, an invitation to fall in love with ourselves through a kind and generous mirror. It’s double claps at church as a manifestation toward freedom."

—Suzi Q. Smith, author of A Gospel of Bones &

Poems for the End of the World

"Darius Simpson’s Never Catch Me is a healing manual. His use of figurative language surprises the reader, with radical story equations summing up to daring outcomes. Silently drawing you into his word-work, Simpson unveils an arsenal of point-blank realities that say we ain’t givin’ up shyt for nobody!"

—Tureeda Mikell, author of Synchronicity: Oracle of Sun Medicine

"Never Catch Me doesn’t need us to simply bear witness, but instead wields a consciousness and necessity to join the fight. It summons us to acknowledge what it means to be a revolutionary and dares us to hold his language. We’re reminded that we all have a shared responsibility to this call; a shared task to steady our aims back at our common enemy, who holds the Black body as the physical site and location under their scope."

—mimi tempestt, author of the monumental misrememberings

"Never Catch Me is every word for revolution that revolution never thought to use for itself. Line after line, defying language expectation as resistance, Simpson wraps us in a sculpture of Black celebration, pain, joy, struggle, and liberation. If there is a single word to describe the power of Simpson’s voice, the English language hasn’t found it yet."

—Landon Smith, author of No Bedtime Stories of Soil

NEVER CATCH ME

Never Catch Me

Poems By

Darius Simpson

Button Publishing Inc.

Minneapolis

2022

© 2022 by Darius Simpson

Published by Button Poetry / Exploding Pinecone Press

Minneapolis, MN 55403 | http://www.buttonpoetry.com

All Rights Reserved

Manufactured in the United States of America

Cover design: Amy Law

ISBN 978-1- 63834- 048- 5

eISBN: 978-1-63834-055-3

26 25 24 23 22 1 2 3 4 5

for my people.

CONTENTS

I.

We Don’t Die

Seventy-Two Hours

Yea I Did It

Perhaps We Are Our Ancestors’ Wildest Dreams

11:05 on a Saturday Night and the Dancefloor Is Calling Me by My Government Name

I Don’t Know What Y’all Came to Do

In Detroit a Cluster of Black Folks Is Called a Hustle

And It Don’t Stop

Tiran

Ma’am I’m Sorry to Tell You Your Son Is D—

Word Bank or My Mother’s First Words Upon Realizing I Am Not Asleep in My Bed

Word Problems

Impact: A Run-On Question

If I’m Caught Between A Badge and A Hard Place Three Hours after the Street Lights Turn On

On a Day I Pass Another 100-Year-Old White Man A Black Man Is Pronounced Dead at 54

Last Call

I Think Heaven Is Actually Right Here Stevie

II.

How We Survive the End

What Don’t Kill You

Pleading with Scraped Knuckles

I Left the Church in Search of God

Ekphrasis of the Black Boy Being Dunked On in Front of a Confederate Statue

Ode to Powerline

Dreamgirls Soundtrack Track 5

Loaded

Cain

What Is There to Do in Akron, OH?

Shatter

Said the Mirror to Its Reflection

Black & Mild

My Older Brother Apologizes

Early 2000’s Fashion Was A Confusing Time for All of Us

III.

Glossary of Terms

Etymology of Fuck 12

10:33 Outside Your Local Precinct

Worksheet #1

What We Doin Here?

The Role of the Artist

A Poem in Which We Shoot Back

In a Past Life I Was Choked by a Pig and All My Neighbors Watched It Happen Instead of Jumping in

The Most Important Ballot of Our Lifetime Again

Capitol Capital

This Last Election Was a Riot

Irrefutable Proof I Knew the President Personally

Up Above My Head

Ok So Maybe the Rally Won’t Get Us Free

A Million Men March into a Wildfire

Stop the Violence!

You Know He Shot at the Police Right?

Nonprofit Equity Statement Walks Into a Summer 2020 Writing Workshop