Sadly, we’ve reached the end of National Poetry Month. There are so many poets, so many beautiful words I wish I could share, but only 30 days in April.
Wait. That’s a good thing.
This month was crazy–all the end of the semester madness amplified by Zoom teaching, learning, meeting, and sheltering-in-place. Thankfully, I was able to find some time to think and write, and I wrote poetry almost every day.
I’ve enjoyed our daily excursions, and we end with the words of nayyirah waheed, whose book salt goes everywhere with me. The poem below is from nejma, her second collection of poetry. It is appropriate for today.
(all i can do is rest.)
my body is the middle of a poem.
there is prayer in poem.
when i am writing
i am praying.
all the prayers that are too soft.
too young.
too old.
to say.
nayyirah waheed, from nejma
Thank you for taking this journey with me. Although we will move on to other matters, we will return to poetry often. For now, I hope you were inspired to pick up a book of poetry and savor the words or grab a pen to write your own. More importantly, I hope you are on the way to living your poem.
About the image: The postcard above features the artwork of Melissa Shutlz-Jones. It is entitled “Birmingham Summer.” The card was among those Irene Latham distributed to students when she visited our campus, and probably because of the sunflower, a student gave the postcard to me. 🙂
Pics and Posts 
Lovely image and words. Thank you for your thoughtful, evocative posts this month Chandra! Such gifts you shared 🙂 So happy to hear you snuck in your own writing. Very important 🙂 Blessings and prayers sent your way. 🙂
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Thank you! I need all I can get!
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I like the idea of living your poem, and yes prayer is a poem (and vice versa)… so we also live our prayer. Somehow that is very comforting.
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It is. Our life as prayer and poem. That’s similar to a quote I share with students.
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Lovely poem and postcard, Chandra. Glad you are doing well in these bizarre and unusual times.
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Bizarre. Surreal. Just strange. Thanks for dropping in.
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Nice. Happy new month ma’am. Keep up the great work.
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Happy May to you as well!
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Thank you. 😊
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I discovered Nayirah in 2018 I believe and her poetry gave me such boost to keep writing.
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Yes! SALT stays with me! I love the way she expresses our experiences as Black women.
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