"Morning Parking

Right at the bench

At Ritter Park,

Under the sentinal that has been

Guarding my actions…"

(From "Ramblings of a Scorched Soul" Poems by Edna Smith Duckworth)

Poet Edna Smith Duckworth will be honored Tuesday, March 6, 6:30 pm, at the Women of Color celebration in the Alumni Lounge, 2W-16, Marshall University’s Student Center.

Duckworth was born in Huntington in 1910 in a black neighborhood on 10^th street that she once described as the "laundry basket" of Huntington’s white community. Duckworth says she is a descendant of Thomas Jefferson and his slave, Sally Hemmings. While she has been writing poetry all of her life, she was "discovered" in 1995 when she showed some of her journals to friends at Marshall. The result was her book, "Ramblings of a Scorched Soul," Poems by Edna Smith Duckworth, which was published by Marshall University’s John Deaver Drinko Academy.

"Ramblings of a scorched soul.

A bundle of flesh-

That has scratched and clawed

To make everyone

She ever

Contacted/

Met/

Birthed/

Happy."

 Edna Smith Duckworth