I saw a picture on social media the other day, and it read, “Are we sure 2020 is gone?” I chuckled, like most, with a sense of sobriety especially after the events at the Capitol, so we’re all asking, “What is going on?” We used to go on social media to get a […]
spoken word
Bellows
For National Poetry Month we’re reposting this amazing poem by Anita Scott. #poetrylife Be the bellows of my soul. Be the bellows in my soul. Be the push and the blow that reconciles gaining with letting go, releasing while receiving. Be the reason that hope lives in tears. Be the One who […]
Listening to my Mother is an Act of Learning to Love Myself
Listening to My Mother is an Act of Learning to Love Myself When I learned I was pregnant, I was scared because I was the shape of the moon and I didn’t think that my body carried enough light to make the night sky shine. Whittling a daugther from your flesh feels […]
Belief
The many tunnels honeycomb me in one by one, I become frozen in deep blue. I become noisy as a bee cloud. I become holy like a rooted tree. The many tunnels open me into their skin, to see the golden lamp, a golden calf reborn. To believe in the candle who outweighs, […]
Portrait of A Both Girl
I am not black. I am not white. I am somewhere between the ink and the page, the word that is blurred out. I am not what you assume She speaks Spanish… can’t quite place her…. definitely not from around here I am from around here. I grew up down that stone road […]
A Conversation I Never Expected to Have
This poem was performed at Deeply Rooted: A Gathering in May 2016. I was made with more than flesh in mind; A mind! Imagine that. A mind that reasons & wonders why All you see are body parts; Mountains & valleys that you can walk over & conquer. Not afraid of rough terrain or how […]
Benediction For Unity
Benediction for Unity It is hard to admit this because we are kind people but we wouldn’t know unity from contempt we wouldn’t know togetherness from war we wouldn’t be able to say that the church body is whole we are too mixed up with who is for us and who is against us we […]
Where I Am Today
I can feel the tears And this time I’m trying really hard to stay near You But I can feel the water behind my eyes Sometimes making it hard for me to see You. I can feel the waves of doubt Hitting me like bullets in a windstorm And I’m squinting my eyes Trying […]
The Fear Underneath It All
To listen to the spoken-word version of this post by Ashley, click below. “But the tigers come at night. With their voices soft as thunder. As they tear your world apart. As they turn your dreams to shame . . .” ~”I Dreamed a Dream,” Les Miserables “You’ll never do it again. Your words are […]