Toni Morrison (1931-2019) was an American novelist, essayist, editor, and professor. She was the first African-American woman to win the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1993. She was also the recipient of the Pulitzer Prize in Fiction, for her 1987 novel “Beloved”, and of many more awards.
She wrote a volume of poetry, “Five Poems” (2002), from which “Eve Remembering” is taken .

February 18, her birthday, has officially become “Toni Morrison Day”.

Eve Remembering

1
I tore from a limb fruit that had lost its green.
My hands were warmed by the heat of an apple
Fire red and humming insight.
I bit sweet power to the core.
How can I say what it was like?
The taste! The taste undid my eyes
And led me far from the gardens planted for a child
To wildernesses deeper than any master’s call.

2
Now these cool hands guide…