This is the last Friday and also the next to the last day of February. What a month it has been. The Valentine's Day Cards, the Presidents' Day, Mardi Gras, snow and more snow and of course Black History celebration for 2015.
How many of you enjoy listening to poetry or reading poetry? In school or when you were in school, do you remember William Shakespeare? Do you listen to music? Do you read the Psalms? Okay, have you heard of Latorial Faison (www.latorial.blogspot.com)? She is an African American poet & author of best-selling Amazon Kindle titles I AM WOMAN, flesh, Love Poems & The Marriage Bed. Faison has taken her three-book collection, 28 Days of Poetry Celebrating Black History into schools in various states. This University of Virginia and VA TECH graduate's writing has appeared in many Journals and Magazines. Today, I salute this poet and one of her poems:
What is Black History?
by Latorial Faison
It is the dirt road our forefathers trod,
Memories of their lives branded in our hearts.
It is a word, a place, a state of mind.
Black history is a peek into our ancestors’ time.
It is a piece of fabric our grandmothers wore,
An old rope that our grandfathers lived to deplore.
It is a slave ship and middle passage over seas.
Black history is cotton fields and tobacco leaves.
It is a plantation overseer and back door crumbs,
Weeping and wailing, a beating of drums.
It is a troubling truth, an unapologetic past.
Black history is an entire race struggling to last.
It is a Mississippi burning in a Tennessee town,
An evil that lingered to bring Black people down.
It is a book or movie of strength, courage, and will.
Black history is the fate of young Emmett Till.
It is little Ruby Bridges, the exquisite Ruby Dee,
Carter G. Woodson, and Coretta Scott King.
A Mahalia Jackson song, a Michael Jackson routine,
Black history is the phrase “Let freedom ring!”
It is Cheney University, the Tuskegee Airmen,
The N. A. A. C. P., the Black Holocaust Museum.
It is a navy master diver named Carl Brashear.
Black history is our legacy of triumph without fear.
It is General Colin Powell, a Vaudeville drama,
Zora Neale Hurston, and President Barack Obama.
It is every single experience of our history.
Black history is the story of you and me.
My creative art to go along with this poem:
Find a type of poetry to read or to listen to today. Thank you for viewing with me today. Enjoy your weekend.
Sending you a hug and LOVE
Lois
2 comments:
Lois, thanks for sharing and no I hadn't heard of her!
Lois this is so beautiful. I will renew myself with poetry
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