THE POETRY OF AARON DIXON

Born in Chicago, Illinois, Aaron Dixon is best known as the co-founder of the Seattle Chapter of the Black Panther Party, alongside his brother, Elmer Dixon. The Dixon family resided in Seattle's Central District, where the chapter was founded in the family home. Aaron recently shared some of his poetry with us, and we are honored to bring his work to our readers this month.

Poem 1

I led my troops across the river of time. 

It was at the other side of the shore that we came under a furious enemy attack.

My men falling to the left and to the right of me. 

It was then, at that moment, I thought for 1 quick second that my time had come. Yet at that second, an invisible wave rose from within me and my remaining troops, and I fought like trapped tigers in a den. 

The den of the end. Slashing, thrusting, grunting, growling. 

Moving inch by inch. 

Foot by foot. 

Blood, eyes, and ears flying around. 

We were magnificent! We were like machinery, killing and destroying the enemy for what seemed like an eternity. 

Finally… there was silence. Save for the murmurs of the dying. 

I felt a sadness that we, men, had to come face-to-face to kill. 

I wiped away the blood across my face, gathering my remaining men to continue to move forward. 

To continue on the curse that has haunted Man. 

The curse of revenge is a bottomless pit to nowhere. 

Poem 2 

It has been almost 2 years since your departure.. yet the memories of you are still strong.

The days we fought the enemy together in the streets of Seattle and in the alleys of Oakland. 

We were some of the soldiers in the revolution until your escape to the East Coast. 

Many years passed before we united again, as I needed your help with Central House.

There were our trips of adventure to Brazil, Venezuela, and Ecuador.

We led the life of searchers and adventurers.

Searchers for freedom, love, and truth. 

Although you have physically departed, the memories of you are strong. 

And our connection is eternal. 

Poem 3

I stand alone on the ridge of time, waiting. 

Waiting for you to come back this way to remember the last times.

The good times, the times of love and roses, and of free spirits roaming the night in quest of the eternal.

I have been waiting oh so long.

Sometimes weary, sometimes sad, yet I wait.

Poem 4

It's hard to explain my love for Joni Mitchell.

Mostly, my love for her is her ability to write poetry, her ability to string words, single words to a tapestry of haunted stories of love and travel, highways 

and lonely motels,

and blue skies,

and planes and many other things. 

Her story is as long as her career. 

Her stories will live forever as the storied songs of Bob Dylan, Marvin Gaye, and George Harrison

and many others.

Her voice so real, so clear.

High pitches in middle valleys.

I listen late into the night in a daze of love for songs that reach deep into my heart. 

Plucking my emotions and my soul like a finely tuned guitar.

She is the greatest of singers and songwriters from our period of rebels, deep thinkers, deep searchers looking for the truth, enduring pain.

What a gift she has, what a gift she is. 

“There's comfort in melancholy,” she sang.

“I see something of myself in everyone. ... Still somehow the slightest touch of a stranger can set up trembling in my bones.

In the church, they light the candles and the wax rolls down like tears. ...

From the window of a hotel room.

I’m traveling in some vehicle, I'm sitting in some cafe

You just picked up a hitcher, a prisoner of the white lines on the freeway. 

He picked up my scent on his fingers.”

I came late to Joni’s party, a party that lasted long into time.

ABOUT THE ARTIST

Influenced by his parents’ commitment to social justice, Aaron Dixon became one of Seattle's leading activists. While a student at the University of Washington, Dixon played a key role in founding the first Black Students’ Union (BSU) and the Seattle chapter of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC). Through the BSU, Dixon worked to organize BSU chapters and protests at Garfield, Franklin, and Rainier Beach High Schools.

Dixon and his fellow Panthers turned their Panther chapter into a thriving center of militant Black activism and community service in Seattle’s Central District. By the 1970s, the Seattle chapter of the Black Panther Party had forged ties with other groups in Seattle’s activist community, including the organizations leading the anti-Vietnam War Movement. In 1972, Dixon, along with other Panther Chapter leaders from across the nation, moved to the Black Panther Party national headquarters in Oakland to work directly with Bobby Seale, Huey P. Newton, Elaine Brown, and other Panther leaders.

Today, Aaron Dixon can be found speaking to college students, educators, and activists across the nation and internationally. His experiences have made him a key leader and mentor to a generation of activists.

The poems shared here are just a sampling of Dixon's poetic expressions. Dixon intends to publish a book of poetry in the near future. He is the author of a best-selling memoir, My People Are Rising: Memoir of a Black Panther Party Captain, published in 2012. In 2018, the Seattle Chapter of the Black Panther Party celebrated 50 years after its 1968 founding. The anniversary brought comrades from around the world to pay homage and celebrate.

Learn more about Aaron Dixon here.