Afaa Michael Weaver weaves aspects of his life story into a reading of his four poems included in the Library of America anthology "African American Poetry: 250 Years of Struggle and Song." Weaver explains how an early interest in East Asian cultures, including his Tai Chi practice and a fateful encounter with the Tao Te Ching, led him to a greater self-understanding that is also manifested in such poems as "Inside the Blues Whale," "Scrapple," "Washing the Car with My Father," and "John Henry Sleeping in High Grass."