“Crown” by E.A. Noble, a poem for Black History Month
Today I’m happy to introduce poetry to the newsletter. When I started publishing short fiction last year, I intended to include poetry, and I’m just now getting to it. I’ve always had a soft spot for poetry. A good poem touches the soul unlike anything else, I find. Poetry has a way of being raw, emotional, and pulse pounding. And relatable in a way that narrative fiction doesn’t always work. And no, I’m not a poet, so I’m not bragging. I do write lyrics, but to me that’s not the same.
All that to say that I’m super pleased to bring the first poem to the newsletter for reading and downloading… AND for listening. Our first poem has been performed for audio and I’ve included it as well. The download will also include both the poem in written and audio form as well.
This is a cross-post of sorts, as E.A. Noble first shared this poem as part of a collection of Black History Month poetry. You can read them all at her website here.
Meet E.A. Noble
E.A. Noble.
E.A. Noble writes queer fantasy and gothic literature. She’s an author and poet — the latter of which she’ll be representing today. She was raised in Jackson, Mississippi, but that’s not where I met her. Like many of the writers that come across the newsletter, I met her on the web — Threads to be precise. Last year, she put out a call for some folks to read and give feedback on a poem she had written. The poem was ridiculously good and reminded me a lot of Langston Hughes’s poetry, especially his poem “The Negro Speaks of Rivers.” To say I felt honored reading the piece is an understatement, and I definitely felt inadequate to providing feedback. She’s an extremely talented poet and I hope to keep reading her poetry. I haven’t read any of her fiction yet, but I suspect it’s just as fire. And we all owe her grandmothers a debt of gratitude for encouraging her to pursue her writing from an early age.
You can find E.A. Noble across the web in these places:
A poem for Black History Month 2025 written by author and poet E.A. Noble. Download includes both an audio recording of Noble performing the poem as well as the poem in ebook format.
After you've finished reading and listening, please come back and leave a review or comment below.
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Copyright © 2025 by E.A. Noble.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted by Artificial Intelligence (AI) or used in the training of AI, for either commercial or non-commercial purposes. For permission requests, write to the poet, with subject “Crown — And the Black Girl Went Down” at the following email address: thejournalofeanoble@gmail.com.
“Crown — And the Black Girl Went Down”
A Poem by E.A. Noble
Black girl,
let me snatch your hair.
Scalp—bald you.
Let me wear your crown.
You don't need it, anyway.
It's not like your hair is silky straight—
easy to maintain, submissive.
Your hair is indecisive.
Wild Nappy Corse.
Your hair is loud, enormous.
It takes up too much space.
It never stays the course—ball knots at the nape of your neck.
You don't want it.
You don't need it
Take mine instead.
Don't you know silk is worth more than cotton.
Black girl,
let me wear you,
so you won't have to.
I'm doing you a favor—don't you see?
Don't you want to be just like me?
Black girl,
let down your locs.
Let me climb up,
save you from lofty towers.
Why be queen?
It's such an insufficient thing.
See that girl out in the field—
don't you want to be just like them?
Roaming the land at liberty,
rolling down hills carefree?
Black girl,
let me cut your hair.
Free you from your stress.
I'll do this for you,
I only want what's best.
Go down
hairless and free.
Go down,
down
out into the world.
And I'll keep safe
your ivory tower.
Your glass throne,
and all your diamonds.
Go down.
Have your joy.
I will wear your crown.
—and the Black girl went down.
Please sound off in the comments to let E.A. Noble know what you thought of her poem. And as always, keep it respectful.
