I Don't Want to Be Buried in the Storm
Channel: Stephen Griffith
Date: 2021-03-10

Sandburg writes: "R. Emmett Kennedy tells of "a cool, moonlight night in early autumn," when he sat on the front veranda of an old plantation house and he could hear mocking birds in soft song amid cedar trees. Then on the breeze came a snatch of plaintive melody, "the sound of sorrow and the burden of mourning." He knew that in quarters across the field a night watch had begun over a dead black man. "You are moved by the archaic solemnity of the occasion and feel impelled to become an intimate witness." 

"He stood by a window where the song came clear to him. Stanzas he had missed were given to him later by Rebecca Hutton. R. Emmett Kennedy was a rather marvelously sensitive listener, writing of what came to his ears, "How long you stood by the window listening outside in the moonlight, pondering over the drama of mysterious departure, you will never recall; for under the spell of enchantment such as this, reason becomes nebulous and remembrance gives way to dreams of bewilderment."