Born and raised in Pittsburgh, Ed Roberson studied painting in his youth and was educated at the University of Pittsburgh. His extensive travels inform his work, which is also influenced by spirituals and the blues, and by visual art, such as the mixed-media collages of Romare Bearden. Roberson lives in Chicago, where he has taught at the University of Chicago, Columbia College, and Northwestern University.
More By This Poet
I Don't See
I expected something up out of the water
not the shadow in the wave that rose
to fill the wave then splash a breath
off the abutting air then disappear.
I didn't see any of this only
the dark...
be careful
i must be careful about such things as these.
the thin-grained oak. the quiet grizzlies scared
into the hills by the constant tracks squeezing
in behind them closer in the snow. the snared
rigidity of the winter lake. deer after deer
crossing...