In 1972, Muhammad Ali fought an ex-con from Detroit, all the way across the Atlantic Ocean in Dublin, Ireland. On an Irish television interview show, Ali recited a poem he had written, from memory, about the Attica State prison riots of the previous year. In the poem, Ali imagines a conversation between the prison warden talking with an unnamed inmate. The inmate says the poem in response to a 10-minute ultimatum. Surrender in 10 minutes or we will open fire. It’s in the tercet form, three lines at a time. It’s one of the reasons Muhammad Ali was the Greatest...
Better far from all I see
To die fighting to be free
What more fitting end could be?
Better surely than in some bed
Where in broken health I’m led
Lingering until I’m dead
Better than with prayers and pleas
Or in the clutch of some disease
Wasting slowly by degrees
Better than of heart attack
Or some dose of drug I lack
Let me die by being Black
Better far that I should go
Standing here against the foe
Is the sweeter death to know
Better than the bloody stain
On some highway where I’m lain
Torn by flying glass and pane
Better calling death to come
Than to die another dumb
Muted victim in the slum
Better than of this prison rot
If there’s any choice I’ve got
Kill me here on the spot
Better far my fight to wage
Now while my blood boils with rage
Lest it cool with ancient age
Better vowing for us to die
Than to Uncle Tom and try
Making peace just to live a lie
Better now that I say my sooth
I’m gonna die demanding truth
While I’m still akin to youth
Better now than later on
Now that fear of death is gone
Never mind another dawn.
...of all time.
Watch the video below the fold. Powerful.
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