Agraria_Journal_Summer_2022

AGRARIA JOURNAL 2021 9 A Prayer for Black Farmers CHERYL SMITH Let the winds be gentle and the sun be kind Let the visceral memories of all you left behind Guide you in your planting Affirm you in the dirt Let Mother Africa caress you in this strange and bitter earth A land that would not welcome you with open arms and peace But treat you as an “other,” some foreign kind of beast But you possess a wisdom from the cradle beginnings of man That sets your heart and mind and hands in harmony with the land I salute you one and all Farmers big and farmers small From rural plows and sacred sowers To backyard urban garden growers From free men who came with hope to a new and foreign place To Freedmen sworn to find a way of redemption for our race Nothing can account for your perseverance and success Except that in your struggle you have been heaven blessed Give nothing for your journey Cry not for your deep pain No one will ever capture the depth of the refrain The songs of freedom pouring from your precious soul As you water, weed, and harvest and labor in heat and cold Making your contribution steeped in blood Your sacrifices stomped in mud To feed a nation within a nation That would not have survived Had you forsaken and not taken all the horrors they supplied But you are the lifeline of the young Though your triumphal song will go unsung The road you made will carry us through And we give our thanks and honor to you Cheryl Smith is a poet, activist, and member of the Agraria Board of Trustees.