Poetry

To honor the National Gallery of Art’s exhibition The Art of Romare Bearden, the first comprehensive Bearden retrospective in more than a decade, VQR asked National Book Award-finalist Kevin Young to respond to ten of Bearden’s...

He wrapped them carefully and tidily
in precious green silk.

& the initial premise?

I am holding a picture of my sister’s unborn child, its face
     seemingly reflective.

Some days there is nothing
of the blues
     I can use
so I put down
my pen & walk instead

Where will you go,
little vagabond,
anonymous familiar,

Best advice I ever heard
I learned


at the poker table:
Shut up & deal.

The years of my youth, my sensual life—
how clearly I see their meaning now.

Blue fluid in my limbs,
momentum buoys me up
at takeoff speed

Half his life he parachuted
from open cockpits in swamp fog,
and the other madly scouted