River Bend

Special Series
Written By Grantmakers in the Arts GIA

Part of the “Soothing the Itch” Series

by DéLana R. A. Dameron

River Bend

Sometimes you step out onto the ledge

to test the weight behind you

holding you up

At the end of this flat rock water

Faith is like this

Maybe this rock has the answers

the earth won’t give

Maybe the lesson

is in the fall

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Photo by Courtney D. Garvin

DéLana R. A. Dameron is an artist whose primary medium is storytelling. Dameron is a graduate of New York University’s MFA program in poetry and holds a bachelor of arts degree in history from the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill. Her debut poetry collection, How God Ends Us, was selected by Elizabeth Alexander for the 2008 South Carolina Poetry Book Prize, and her second collection, Weary Kingdom, was selected by Nikky Finney for the Palmetto Poetry Series. REDWOOD COURT, Dameron’s debut novel about a young Southern Black girl as she comes of age in the 1990’s is forthcoming from Dial Press in 2024. Her work has appeared in the Kweli Journal, Los Angeles Review of Books, The Rumpus, and elsewhere. Dameron is the founder of Saloma Acres, a 22.5 acre equestrian and cultural playspace, Red Olive Culture Commons, a boutique fundraising consulting agency, and Black Art Futures Fund, a philanthropic initiative supporting small and community-based Black arts organizations. She currently lives in her hometown Columbia, South Carolina.

Grantmakers in the Arts GIA

Grantmakers in the Arts is the only national association of both public and private arts and culture funders in the US, including independent and family foundations, public agencies, community foundations, corporate philanthropies, nonprofit regrantors, and national service organizations – funders of all shapes and sizes across the US and into Canada.

https://www.giarts.org
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Soothing the Itch
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Prologue