6 Must-Read Marilyn Nelson Poems

Marilyn Nelson is an American poet born in Cleveland, Ohio in 1946. She has written numerous books for children and worked as a translator. She has been featured three times on the finalist list for the National Book Award. She was elected a Chancellor of the Academy of American Poets in 2013.

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Poem Explorer Poetry Archives

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The Ballad of Aunt Geneva

Marilyn Nelson’s ‘The Ballad of Aunt Geneva’ is about a Black woman’s life, relationships, work, and the rumors about her character.

This is a lovely Marilyn Nelson poem that is as interesting as it is thoughtful. It requires readers to analyze the information they've bene given as well as consider the fact that most of it is based on rumors. The poem describes the life of one woman in vague, judgemental detail. It condemns her as a "tart" and "wild" based on what people have observed about her.

Geneva was a wild one

Geneva was a tart.

Geneva met a blue-eyed boy

And gave away her heart.

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Worth

‘Worth’ by Marilyn Nelson wrestles for an answer regarding both who and by what means do we prescribe value to other people and ourselves.

This powerful poem by Nelson contends with the horrors of slavery as a means of questioning how and by what authority we determine a person's worth. Its speaker pointedly reveals the hypocrisies that are inherent to the dehumanizing practice of owning and selling human beings that was once commonplace in the U.S.

Today in America people were bought and sold:

five hundred for a "likely Negro wench."

If someone at auction is worth her weight in gold,

how much would she be worth by pound? By ounce?

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Conductor

‘Conductor’ by Marilyn Nelson offers the rousing introspections of a conductor on The Underground Railroad who asserts the necessity of replacing self-preservation with an instinctual selflessness.

In this poem, Nelson gives a heartfelt and intimate ode to the people who risked much to aid runaway slaves on The Underground Railroad. Drawing on the real-life work of Nancy Morris, one of the so-called conductors who helped shepherd Black Americans to freedom in the North. The result is a powerful poem that instills in the reader the belief that what gives our lives purpose and meaning is that which we give freely.

When did my knees learn how to forecast rain,

and my hairbrush start yielding silver curls?

Of late, a short walk makes me short of breath,

and every day begins and ends with pain.

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Star-Fix

‘Star-Fix’ by Marilyn Nelson is a poem that lionizes the noble role of the navigator onboard an aircraft.

This is one of Marilyn Nelson's standout poems. The combination of celestial imagery grounded in the heroic celebration of the navigator makes it a timeless ode to various themes. From the camaraderie people share when they're forced to rely on one another to the commemoration of qualities of leadership.

At his cramped desk under the astrodome, the navigator looks

thousands of light-years everywhere but down. He gets a celestial fix,

measuring head-winds; checking the log; plotting wind-speed,

altitude, drift in a circle of protractors, slide-rules, and pencils.