“Dirt” comes from Kwame Dawes’s 2013 collection of poetry Duppy Conqueror (Copper Canyon Press). Dawes was born in Ghana, West Africa, raised in Jamaica, and took up residence in the United States, first in South Carolina and eventually in Nebraska, where he continues to teach. The name of the collection in which “Dirt” appears comes from the Patois term that translates roughly to “Ghost Conqueror,” or conqueror of bad spirits, and references Bob Marley’s song of the same name. Like much of Dawes’s poetry, “Dirt” explores issues of the African diaspora; the speaker expresses the sentiments of a communal “we” who were forced to work the land but denied the ability to own that land or the fruits of their labor. The poem recounts how they were driven from their own land through violent means and made to labor for another person’s gain, but ultimately it expresses hope that those who gave their time and energy to cultivate the dirt will eventually be able to buy dirt or land of their own and pass it down to their children and subsequent generations. The poem does not specifically reference African Americans by name, but it opens with a quote by the prominent African American playwright August Wilson, whose plays explore the concerns of African Americans who have been historically denied opportunities of upward mobility. The ambiguity of the speaker of the poem may be intentional, allowing readers to infer that the poem represents any group who has been coerced into laboring for another’s reward.

Poet Biography

Dawes was born in Ghana in 1962. His father was a writer, and his mother was an artist. He and his siblings began writing short stories as a way of entertaining one another. Dawes was the only one of his siblings who became a professional writer.

The family moved to Jamaica when Dawes was 10 years old. He learned about Rastafarianism and learned to play reggae music, which went on to influence his writing and worldview. Dawes began writing plays while he was still a teenager. His first collection of poems, Progeny of Air, won the Forward Poetry Prize, Best First Collection in 1994. Dawes says that it wasn’t until his third book of poetry was released that he began calling himself a poet.

As an adult, Dawes lived in the United States where he was the Louis Frye Scudder Professor of Liberal Arts at the University of South Carolina. After 20 years there, he moved with his family to Nebraska to teach English at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. He also teaches through Pacific University’s MFA program and is currently editor-in-chief at Prairie Schooner Magazine. He is one of the few African-born poets to hold such a prominent position in American letters.

He has released more than 20 collections of poetry, two novels, various plays, and a nonfiction book, Bob Marley: Lyrical Genius (Sanctuary, 2002). His book Duppy Conqueror (Copper Canyon, 2013) comes from Marley’s song of the same title. In 2016, he released a book co-written with Australian poet John Kinsella, Speak from Here to There.

In addition to producing his own writing, Dawes produces and promotes the work of other African writers as Director of the African Poetry Book Fund and Artistic Director of the Calabash International Literary Festival. In 2012, he created the South Carolina Poetry Initiative’s annual book prize competition and is the editor of the winning entries.

Poem Text

Dawes, Kwame. “Dirt.” 2013. Poets.org.

Summary

“Dirt” opens with a quote from August Wilson’s play, The Piano Lesson. The character Boy Willie speaks the quote, explaining how he plans to get the money to buy some land of his own.

The first line “We who gave, owned nothing” (Line 1) establishes that the speaker is African American, speaking for others in their community who work the land but have been denied personal land ownership. They say that collectively they “learned the value of dirt” (Line 2). It is characterized as having “unruly growth,” “limits,” and “entanglements” (Lines 4-6), but those who look over a piece of land know “the meaning of a name, a deed, / a currency of personhood” (Lines 8-9). The speaker defines the meaning of land as being important for personal as well as practical value. They note “Here, [is] where we have labored / for another man’s gain” (Lines 10-11), recounting the history of how enslaved people were made to work the land only to turn over all profits of that labor to the landowners. The speaker continues:

if it is fine

to own dirt and stone, it is

fine to have a plot where

a body may be planted to rot (Lines 11-14).

They express a desire to own the land they work on, which would allow them not only the “dirt and stone” but also the place where they would eventually be buried. The speaker again references being part of a community: “We who have built only / that which others have owned” (Lines 15-16) and says that they:

learn the ritual of trees,

the rites of fruit picked

and eaten, the pleasures

of ownership (Lines 17-20).

They acknowledge that it is pleasurable to own things and emphasize how much they want to own something themselves. Until now, they have not been able to because they “have fled with sword / at [their] backs” (Lines 21-22) and had the things they owned “stolen” from them. Yet, the speaker declares “we / will walk naked and filthy / into the open field” (Lines 23-25) and know that the dirt, the “expanse of nothing, / is the earnest of our faith” (Lines 27-28). This further emphasizes how important the “dirt” is to the speaker. They continue with “We will sell our bones / for a piece of dirt” (Lines 30-31), and with this dirt they will “build new tribes / and plant new seeds / and bury our bones in our dirt” (Lines 32-34).