Saying things out loud

on Black traditions and using your voice

Hey y’all!

I hope our weeks apart have found you well, or at the very least, okay. I have been more quiet, lately. Thinking, a lot.

It is the first day of Black History Month. And because we don’t focus on pain here, we won’t, but y’all know. It’s been a lot. And amid all that’s been going on I’ve been thinking a lot about history, and past truths, and even pre-colonialist truths that Black and African diasporic people share.

Back in the day-day, we spoke. We shared stories not on paper but out of our mouths and into people’s ears and hearts. And that’s where those truths lived for generations and generations, from one memory to the next. And it’s such a beautiful tradition. So, I thought what better time for me to use my voice than today?

I’ve been revisiting a lot of poems lately. Many I started a while ago but I didn’t finish, that have been sitting in my own personal vault for nearly a year now. But, I had a really lovely day the other day and I was just inspired to revisit a lot of these poems and I was able to revise a lot of them. So yeah.

A lot of the times my poems evolve even after I share them. I go back to them and I look at them and I feel around and see what needs to change, and that’s kind of what happened with the ones I’m going to share with you today. I think it depends on were I am in life, or what I’ve recently learned or realized. But for now, these poems feel complete and so I’d like to share three of them with you…

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Good skin
There she is
Over there rocking that
Good skin
Smooth and bright and delicate, soft
Not a bump
Nor blemish
Can be seen
and
We ask
What products she might use
For her flawlessness
Cause we assume
Flawlessness
When
Really we
Just can’t see

Fun
Fun is a type of love
The most playful kind 
So have it
And often
Alone
Or with friends

Direction
Lost?
Find the route
Inside
Still lost?
Take any road
and
Meet me at the truth
Drive slow
Be careful
Don’t worry
Don’t matter
How
You get there

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Thank you for listening, or reading, or both. Feels very strange to use my voice in this way? I get really uncomfortable reading poems out because you have to read them a certain way and I don’t wanna give you Maya Angelou if I’m not really giving, but anyway! I hope you enjoyed it. I hope that you liked it. I hope that you want to hear my voice more, because I would like to use it more. Yeah.

Talk and/or write to you soon,

Thanks y’all.