Transcript: Poems on Air, Episode 32 - Conney D. Williams

[Music intro]

LYNNE THOMPSON: Hello! My name is Lynne Thompson, Poet Laureate for the City of Los Angeles and I’m so happy to welcome listeners to this installment of Poems on Air, a podcast supported by the Los Angeles Public Library. Every week, I’ll present the work of poets I admire, poets who you should know, and poets who have made a substantial and inimitable contribution to the art and craft of poetry.

LYNNE THOMPSON: In this month in which we celebrate Thanksgiving, one of the reasons I’m grateful is the recent or anticipated publication of new collections of poetry. In addition to the poems that will be spotlighted this month on Poems on Air, a list of other new collections I’m anxious to read will be posted on the library’s Poet Laureate’s blog site. Today’s poem was written by L.A. resident Conney D. Williams. Williams is a poet, actor, activist, and has worked as a radio host. His support of and commitment to Leimert Park’s World Stage is legendary and the Stage’s Press published his latest collection The Distance of Observation in June 2021.

LYNNE THOMPSON: Today’s poem is "headboard" by Conney D. Williams.

headboard

neighbors claimed their bones
shook free of themselves
joints became unhinged
like a fireman’s knot softening,
others reported the apartment
building shifted its original foundation
something it didn’t come close to doing
during Northridge or Whittier earthquakes
we bought it the weekend before
not from one of them big outlet stores
something so akin to prayer
so essential to relationship
could not be trusted to assembly lines
but an artificer
bought it from a storefront in Whittier
he was blind and from Zacatecas
his touch extracting
the perfect tone in the redwood
we waited for Saturday morning
when lovers more like the red of wine
inside thin covers
vine can no longer hold them, or
prevent them from shedding skin
ferment fragile atmosphere
waited for Saturday confession
to erect our first altar
unearth tomorrow
collapse daybreak into liturgy
neighbors claimed they never heard
such prayers or hymns before
chasing the tick of minutes, of hours
relentless as truth, as twilight
we were too much music
for that apartment
our bodies too percussive
too much like revival
beneath this sanctuary

LYNNE THOMPSON: The Los Angeles Poet Laureate was created as a joint program between the City’s Depart-ment of Cultural Affairs and the Los Angeles Public Library and this podcast will be available on the Library’s website. In the future, episodes will be available on iTunes, Google, and Spotify. Thanks for listening!

[Music outro]

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    • DISCLAIMER: This is NOT a certified or verbatim transcript, but rather represents only the context of the class or meeting, subject to the inherent limitations of real-time captioning. The primary focus of real-time captioning is general communication access and as such this document is not suitable, acceptable, nor is it intended for use in any type of legal proceeding. Transcript provided by the author.

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