by Pat Parker
Two Plays
“Hard Time”
It is unclear from Parker’s archive when she wrote this play. She did have a clean copy in her papers with some small edits. It may have been written as early as 1965 or 1966 or as late as the mid-1970s.
A list of characters inserted for clarity.
The name of the protagonist of “Hard Time” is Uhuru, a Swahili word for freedom. Most likely for Parker it also nodded to international socialism centered in Africa.
“Pinochle”
It is unclear from Parker’s archive when she drafted this play. The version presented here is clearly labeled first draft and the text itself seems less unified than “Hard Times.” One can imagine Parker editing and polishing this play further. Yet, in conversation with “Hard Times,” “Pinochle” demonstrates her interest in the genre of playwriting and the development of her concerns as a writer.
A list of characters inserted for clarity.
Restored Poems
When Parker assembled Movement in Black, she deleted two poems from Child of Myself, “Assassination” and “Ice Cream Blues,” and one poem from Pit Stop: “To an Unlabelled.” These three poems are presented in the “Restored Poems” section of the book. For original tables of contents of all of Parker’s chapbooks including textual notes on the chapbooks and their different printings, see Appendix.
Uncollected Poems: 1960s, 1970s, 1980s
These poems are arranged in approximate chronological order based on dates indicated on manuscript or typewritten pages, the order of the poems in Parker’s papers, and information gleaned from letters and journals. Where possible, I indicate dates from Parker’s papers. A “m” indicates that the poem was transcribed from a manuscript copy; a “p” indicates that Parker published the poem.
These poems are presented by and large without editorial interventions. When I have inserted a word or altered the text, I indicate the change with [brackets].
As with Movement in Black, where Parker used a hyphen on the typewriter, I have inserted an em dash.
Two notebooks in Parker’s papers—a red notebook and a black notebook—contain drafts of Parker’s poems. In both of these notebooks, Parker has drafts of poems that she published during her lifetime. In the red notebook, there are drafts of “Child’s Play,” “Georgia, Georgia / Georgia on My Mind,” “love isn’t,” “Trying to do How Mama Did can Un Do you,” “Bar Conversation,” “My Brother,” “Legacy,” “Aftermath,” “For Audre,” “For Wayne,” “Massage,” and “Reputation.” Drafts of “Timothy Lee” and “Oprah Winfrey” are in the red notebook; a draft of “[little Billy Tipton]” is in the black notebook. Examining early drafts of these poems might illuminate more about Parker’s creative process and textual attention to the manuscript drafts might inform modes of thinking about editorial processes in feminist presses.
Uncollected Poems: 1960s
In the poem “The Mirror,” a typographic error in the first line appears in the published text “gleaminng”; it is corrected for this edition.
“The Mirror” and “Of Life” appeared in The Citadel, the literary magazine of the Los Angeles Community College, in the fall of 1964. Pat Bullins was the poetry editor.
“[I have seen death]” appeared in Black Dialogue, vol. 1, no. 3&4 (Winter 1966), under her married name Pat Bullins. The then Patricia Cooks married playwright Ed Bullins in 1962.
“To a Friend,” “City Song,” “Not a Good Night,” and “Poem to my Mother” appeared in the journal Perspectives in 1965 with this biographical statement: Patricia Bullins is 21 years old. Lives in San Francisco. Is a writing major at San Francisco State College, but will change to History because she doesn’t like being told how to write. Primary goal is to be accepted as a “good poet”, not just a “good woman poet”. Has appeared in “Negro Digest”, “Citadel”, and “Black Dialogue”. Soon to appear in “Dust”.
“To a Poet, dead,” “Please you all,” “Two Faces of Black,” “Gold Stars & Hollow Bags,” and [A sea haw soars above my head.]” appeared in Perspectives in 1965 under the name Patricia Bullins with this biographical statement: Patricia Bullins has two cats, Squibob and Loven. At night, Squibob sleeps on her head. Loren sleeps on Squibob’s head. These are truly talented cats, for Patricia sleeps hanging by her feet from the chandelier.
[Two people walk], “Snatches of a Day,” and “Berkeley ’66” appeared in the literary journal Out of Sight in August 1966 under the name Patricia Parker.
“Confrontation” is a fair transcription of the poem from the typewritten manuscript. For example, there is a space before the explanation point in the first line; in the third line from the end can and not are two separate words. I present this poem—and others in this section—without editorial interventions for readers to experience a closer relationship to Parker’s artistic production. “Confrontation” first appeared in the literary journal Litmus.
“With Love to Lyndon” is signed Patricia Bullins. Ed Bullins was Parker’s first husband and she took his name when they married.
“Summer” contains a marking on the page indicating that Parker worked on this poem in 1965.
“From the Wars” is dated June 20, 1965 in the manuscript copy used for this transcription.
“To a Deaf Poet” is dated July 7, 1965 and signed Patricia Bullins.
[Two people walk] is dated December 29, 1965 and signed Patricia Bullins.
[Why burn a candle in daylight?] is dated August 19, 1966 and signed Patricia Parker.
“Anatomy of a Pig” is dated March 30, 1976.
Parker made two handwritten corrections in “Going to the bridge now.” In the second stanza the typewritten word woman is changed to dykes by hand. In the final stanza, the typewritten manuscript readers, “Said I would kill myself,” in the first and third line. Handwritten over it is the contraction I’d. The printed text includes these handwritten corrections.
[There are so many bags to fall in] is dated October 1969.
Uncollected Poems: 1970s
“Speech by a Black Nationalist to a white Audience.” is dated August 1970.
[ i will not always be with you] is dated August 1970 and marked revised August 26, 1970.
[not by chance] is dated July 28, 1969 and marked revised August 25, 1970.
“A Woman’s Love” is signed Patricia Parker.
[i have seen], “To Lynda,” and [from my bedroom window] are transcribed from manuscript pages held in the Lynda Koolish Photographs Collection at the San Francisco Public Library.
“Sunday Morning” is marked revised August 27, 1974.
“To Tamara (Tami) Kallen)” is dated October 5, 1974.
“Gente” is dated November 30, 1974.
“Cop took my hand” is dated May 7, 1975.
The limericks were all written on a small notepad advertising Cleocin Phosphate.
“Poem for Ann #5” is dated June 28, 1975.
[i must learn] is from a manuscript page with the number two at the top suggesting that it is the end of a longer poem.
“well, I got the menstrual blues,” “my baby’s a bass player,” and “[I fell in love some time ago]” are song lyrics. At one point Parker wanted to write song lyrics more than poems because of the economic potential of songs over poems. Tassaway is a cup for capturing menstrual fluids; the manufacturer of Tassaway advertised it in the early 1970s.
Two early drafts of [I fell in love some time ago] are in Parker’s red notebook. One draft is a couplet:
Is your closet door a squeaking
when you’re cripping out at night
In this couplet, Parker crossed out slipping and replaced it with cripping.
The second draft is a set of couplets; it appears on a separate page in the journal:
I can’t help but wonder
when you kiss & hold me tight
Is your closet door a squeaking
when you’re slipping out at night
In “A Walk,” the typewritt
en manuscript misspells adolescence; it is corrected in this presentation.
In “At first, I,” in the fourteenth line, it is difficult to read the handwriting—I used the word specter. Richard Milhous referenced in this poem is Richard Milhous Nixon.
Uncollected Poems: 1980s
“For Wayne” contains this note in the upper right hand corner of the typewritten manuscript: “Faggot: A bundle of sticks, twigs or small branches of trees used for fuel”.
Oprah Winfrey began her show in Chicago in January 1984 and the show syndicated nationally in September 1986.
“Reflections on a March” is dated 10/21/87 in Parker’s notebook. The Second National March on Washington for Lesbian and Gay Rights happened on October 11, 1987. Parker performed on the stage.
“To My Straight Sister” was handwritten in Parker’s red journal and a typewritten copy exists in Parker’s archive. The reproduced copy of this copy is from the typewritten copy.
Timothy Lee was hung to death on November 2, 1985 in Concord, CA, a predominantly white suburb east of San Francisco. Timothy Lee was a 23-year old Black Gay men. Lee’s death occurred the same night as a stabbing attack on two Black men by two whites wearing Ku Klux Klan-type robes. At the behest of the local chapter of the NAACP, the FBI investigated both cases. This description comes from an Update by Elizabeth Pincus in Black/Out: The Magazine of the National Black Lesbian and Gay Leadership Coalition, vol 1, no 3/4 (1987). The Update is reprinted from Gay Community News.
[little Billy Tipton] must have been one of the final poems that Parker composed. Tipton died on January 21, 1989, less than six months before Parker did. News of him passing as a man quickly spread, likely prompting Parker to compose this poem. For more information about Billy Tipton’s life, see Diane Wood Middlebrook’s biography of Tipton, Suits Me: The Double Life of Billy Tipton (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1998).
Three poems came from the black notebook in Parker’s papers: [We’re the Dunham-Parker’s from Pleasant Hill], [It’s not so bad], [There are those].
[We’re the Dunham-Parker’s from Pleasant Hill] is an occasional poem that Parker composed and performed for her inlaw’s fiftieth wedding anniversary.
[It’s not so bad] was written in the black notebook. A typewritten copy is in the archive as well. The version reproduced here is from the typewritten copy. This poem was dated January 20, 1989, which was the last birthday Parker was alive.
Multiple iterations of the long poem “Trying to do how mama did can un Do you” are in Parker’s papers. This poem is presented as the last poem of this section as it was frequently performed and Parker seemed to be working on it intensively in the last years of her life. Parker performed this poem many times in the last five years of her life. Parker’s partner, Marty Dunham remembers audiences reciting the chorus, “Trying to do / How mama did / Can undo you.” This version of the poem is from a typewritten copy that seems to be the most complete based on my review of Parker’s papers. The title is reproduced as she typed it.
In the fourth part, Parker typed whopped; I believe that she meant whipped and have changed it in this version; alternately she may have mean whooped.
Acknowledgments
Thank you to Marty Dunham and Anastasia Dunham-Parker-Brady for saying yes to this edition of Pat Parker’s work. They both have been careful stewards of Parker’s papers and legacy over the past nearly thirty years; I am enormously appreciative for their labor and care on behalf of Parker and her papers. I also appreciate their general good cheer and companionship in my work on Parker’s poetry, papers, and legacy. I hope that this edition of Parker’s work fills you both with joy and love for her life and legacy which I know touches you every day. This book is dedicated to Parker’s two grandchildren with the wish that they will know the powerful work of the grandmother they never met.
Cheryl Clarke and Judy Grahn have been important thought partners with me on all aspects of the preparation of this manuscript and the publication of this edition of Parker’s work. I am grateful to both Cheryl and Judy for their support and assistance with this volume—and for their volumes of creative work and the model that they provide me and so many others as engaged, visionary poets.
Thank you to Lawrence Schimel for the partnership to publish the Sapphic Classics and for spearheading fundraising to support this volume. Thank you to all of the donors who contributed to publishing this book.
Thank you to the following students and interns who provided excellent transcriptions for the creation of this book: Maxx Bauman, Sarah Greaney, Rachel Lallouz, Caely McHale, and Asma Neblett.
Finally, thank you to my beloved Kim whose love and labor make my work possible.
All errors are, of course, my own.
Bibliography
Poetry Collections
Movement in Black (Oakland, California: Diana Press, 1978; Trumansburg, New York: Crossing Press, 1983; Ithaca, New York: Firebrand Books, 1990, 1999)
Jonestown & Other Madness (Ithaca, New York: Firebrand Books 1985).
Womanslaughter (Oakland, California: Diana Press, 1978).
Pit Stop (Oakland, California: Women’s Press Collective, 1974, 1975).
Child of Myself (San Lorenzo, California: Shameless Hussy Press, 1971; Oakland, California: Women’s Press Collective, 1972, 1974).
Anthologies, Magazine and Newspaper Publications
Parker’s work appeared in multiple journals, magazines, newspapers and anthologies, including: Loveletter (1968); Mark in Time, Portraits & Poetry / S. F. (Glide Publications, 1971); Mother Magazine (December 1971); Sun Dance Magazine (November-December 1972); Best Friends 2 (University of New Mexico press, 1972); The Furies (June/July 1972); Sisters Magazine IV, no 9 (September 1973); Woman to Woman, edited by Judy Grahn and Wendy Cadden (Oakland, CA: Women’s Press Collective, 1974); Plexus (April 1974); San Francisco Feminist Journal (May 1974); Lesbian Tide (July 1974); Plexus (January 1975); Amazon Poetry, edited by Elly Bulkin and Joan Larkin (Brooklyn, NY: Out & Out Press, 1975); Crimes Against Women, edited by Diana E. H. Russell and Nicole Van de Ven (Les Femmes, 1976); Conditions: Five / The Black Women’s Issue, edited by Lorraine Bethel and Barbara Smith (1979); The Lesbian Path, edited by Peg Cruikshank (Angel Press, 1980); Lesbian Poetry, edited by Elly Bulkin and Joan Larkin (Watertown, MA: Persephone Press, 1981).
Uncollected Early Poetry
“The Mirror.” Citadel (Fall 1964): 12 (published as Pat Bullins).
“Berkeley ‘ 66.” Out of Sight (August 1966): 41
“A Reply to J. Wilson.” Dust no. 9 (Fall 1966): 39
“Two People Walk into a Park.” Out of Sight (August 1966): 39.
“A Walk.” Anthology of Poems Read at COSMEP, the Conference of Small Magazine Editors and Pressmen. eds., Richard Kerch and John Oliver Simon. Berkeley: Noh Directions Press. 1968. 18-19.
“Assassination.” Dices or Black Bones: Black Voices of the 1970s. Ed., Adam David Miller. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1970. 110.
Readings & Performances
1989
California State University, Los Angeles, California (with Cheryl Clarke)
1984
Antioch College, Yellow Springs, Ohio
Pacific Center Benefit, Oakland, California
A Woman’s Place Bookstore, Oakland, California (benefit for Pat Norman)
Evergreen State College, Olympia, Washington
San Francisco State University, San Francisco, California
New College, San Francisco, CA (benefit for Seminary)
1983
University of Oregon, Eugene, Oregon
La Pena Cultural Center, Oakland, California
LA Women’s Building, Los Angeles, California
SF Women’s Building, San Francisco, California
1982
Artemis, San Francisco, California
Black Historical Research Society, San Francisco, California
San Francisco Gay Pride Day, San Francisco, California
Unitarian Church, D
enver, Colorado
University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, Ohio
1981
Arlington Street Church, Boston, Massachusetts
Old Wives Tales, San Francisco, California
East Bay Gay Day, Oakland, California
1980
San Jose State University, San Jose, California
First Unitarian Church, Los Angeles, California
Lone Mountain State College, San Francisco, California
San Francisco State University, San Francisco, California
1979
Michigan State University, East Lansing, Michigan
California State University at Long Beach, Long Beach, California
1978
University of Rhode Island, Kingston, Rhode Island
Boston University, Boston, Massachusetts
Massachusetts Correctional Institution, Framington, Massachusetts
