Please take this time to give these local PGH poets their flowers. Lend them your ears and attention, while stepping into their world.
Carry a Crown
When the days are low & the bed feels best When you feel like you will never create a nest Like a bird with no home to find When you feel invisible and one of a kind Days like this creep stealthily in your mind To steal your truth and pride
When you realize that you have lost your crown Have you dropped it somewhere or set it down If you can’t find it to pick up It‘s okay Create a new one Remind yourself why there was one there in the first place You are resilient, strong and capable God has created you, blessed and able He has set you at doorsteps only for your feet All that is left is for you to have faith and take the leap Lord pick my head up and keep me strong Allow me to never lower it from this day on
By Summer
10/29/21 - 11:58pm
Whatever happens to a black girl who is too anxious to feel like magic
Can she still be fly with wings that tremble
Fighting the world while fighting
I know how hard it is to live with both of us when everything you say to us will be repeated and deconstructed and analyzed in our head a million times after
If I am silent for a while it is because I have to fight with her before I have to fight with you
By JNS
LOST
We often are looking for a reason,
Something that gives us a purpose to make it through every season,
Overwhelmed, exhausted, stressed,
Words that cloud my emotions like an unwanted guest,
Constantly calculating,
Analyzing everything,
With the goal to leave something meaningful to my offspring,
Trying to root ourselves, like plants ,luxuriant, mature ,elegant
Forgetting we too are delicate
Sometime I wonder if I'm working hard enough?
Or maybe it’s too tough?
Am I not strong?
Am I doing this all wrong ?
This feeling of not knowing,
It’s growing,
And leaving me
LOST.
By Kashmer
MY AMBITION
I AM GOING TO WRITE ABOUT EVERYTHING I HAVE EVER FELT AND
EVERYTHING I HAVE EVER DREAMED.
I’M GOING TO WRITE ABOUT EVERYONE WHO HAS EVER EFFECTED ME.
I'M GOING TO WRITE ABOUT ANYTHING I HAVE EVER LOVED, TAKEN
CARE OF, BUILT UP, BROKE DOWN OR EVEN HURT.
I'M GOING TO WRITE ABOUT THE HAPPY TIMES AND THE SAD ONES.
I'M GOING WRITE ABOUT WHAT EVER GOD DIRECTS MY HEART TO WRITE.
I'M GOING TO SEE CLEARLY AND CLARITY.
I'M GOING TO WRITE TO GET PEACE AND TO GET ANSWERS WITHOUT
ASKING ANY QUESTIONS.
IM GOING TO WRITE TO HEAL SOME PEOPLE, AND IT MAY EVEN MAKE
SOME MAD AND EVEN CRY.
I'M GOING TO WRITE SO I AND OTHERS WILL FEEL SOMETHINGS THEY
WISH THEY NEVER FELT.
SO WHEN YOU READ WHAT I WRITE KNOW THAT IT IS ALL FOR THE
GOODNESS THAT I AM RELEASING UPON THOSE WHO MAY NOT HAVE THE
COURAGE TO SAY THE THINGS I WRITE IN THIS WAY.
SO TAKE IN THESE WORDS THAT I SO FREELY GIVE, SO FINALLY YOU CAN
START TO LIVE.
W.O.M.O. BY LISA DRAKE
Falling Forward
Lean into it.
Drive away from the expectation.
Drown in the despair.
You created this.
You made it here.
Lean into this.
Drown in the despair.
Love doesn't live here.
Dream if you dare.
Life has more to spare.
Lean into this.
Drown in the despair.
Your heart has a shining glare.
Give more than your fear.
Lean into this.
You are not here
She lives in his hair.
She finds the love waving through,
wifting in the air.
Lean into this.
You are not here.
We are not to fear.
Love does not live here.
Leave your tears.
Love does not live here.
Fear does not live here.
Love does not live here.
Lean into this.
By Summer
MOVE ME
BY THE TIME YOU UNDERSTAND THE PROCESS TO WHAT YOU WISH YOU
UNDERSTOOD ABOUT THE MOVE, IT WILL ALREADY BE TOO LATE.
THE RADICAL MOVEMENT WE TRY TO TAKE ON BY OURSELVES COMPELS US.
WITH ORDINARY THOUGHTS GRADUALLY PACING OURSELVES IN OUR
LIVES WITH JUST ENOUGH ROOM TO GET BY WILL BE OK TO EXCEPT FOR
SOME.
OCCASIONALLY WE DON'T MIND GETTING CAUGHT UP IN THE SHUFFLE AS
SOME OF US MOVE TOGETHER IN QUITE THE SAME WAY, IT BECOMES OK
JUST SO WE ARE A PART OF.
CERTAINLY MY PEOPLE WILL RISE UP AND OUR EYES WILL BE OPENED UP
AND THEN WE WILL SEE AND KNOW THERE IS NO COMMITMENT TO
FEELING INDIFFERENT.
WE WILL NO LONGER FEEL STRESS BECAUSE OF WHY WE WERE PLACED
HERE WITH NO DIRECTION OR CONTROL.
CERTAINLY MY PEOPLE WILL REALIZE THEIR OWN ORIGIN HAVING
STRONG INTELLIGENT CONVERSATION SHOWING ALL THE AWESOME
CHARACTERS WE ARE MADE UP OF.
RECLAMATION WITHOUT REGRET AND TO SEE THE BEAUTY OF
SOMETHING WE NEVER HAD TO PROVE BUT ONLY THE UNITY THAT
ALLOWED US TO MOVE.
W.O.M.O. BY LISA DRAKE
LOVE
Love
Is it real?
Does it really heal?
Or is it just a made on emotion,
to cause commotion, and confusion.
Confusion of losing,
Losing something we cannot see,
something we cannot touch
Holding tight for the chance to feel this emotion,
like a rich white woman holds her clutch.
What a joke,
Praying for someone to blow smoke,
And leave you broke,
Broken hearted, and a mess
questioning if it was worth all of the stress
Reading fairytales, hoping for this feeling we can't seem to achieve alone,
Thinking we need someone like these millennials need their phones
Why me? We say in disbelief,
How could I let something invisble control me,
misguide me,
& deceive me
It's because love doesn't heal,
often times it’s not real
It‘s just a made up emotion created to cause commotion
By Kashmer
A Hopeful Dream
He told me to write, but he sparks the light. Like the ink in my pen, im just an inkling compared to him. My shadow trails behind, he’s closer in my mind to the man I've been wanting to know again.
But with him, I've never been.
He glistens velvety shimmers of lilac and lavender. His tongue soft but swift as iambic pentameter. He allows me to act out what I do not know, but just to be what I feel in my soul. His voice rich like a rivers moonlit ride of melodies.
His heart screaming your someone I’ll never need. But yet and still needing is what my saged soul does. Needing him to fulfill my wonderlust. He’s still steps ahead and I trail behind. Hoping to catch some glinting gold if it were to fall from his head.
A hopeful dream.
A boastful king.
A ting of tings.
An anchor in seas.
A loving thing.
A spontaneous gleam.
A hopeful dream.
By Janais
11/27/21 11:18am
When I left him I was a shell of a woman
And with all that empty space I filled her up with everything I knew I was destined to become
Love
I am strong, courageous, gentle, sensitive, relentless, funny, unstoppable, hard to handle, compassionate
I am love in its purest most authentic form
I am faith like flowing water
And fire in the night shedding light
By JNS
If you loved what you read here and or looking to get your voice out as well reach out to abbpgh@gmail.com
A very special thanks to the poets above.
JNS
Kashmer
Summer
Lisa Drake
Thank you for your continuous support and blessed words.
- Janais, Another Black Book Co.
It was a pleasure to read these beautiful poems from such gifted women I would love to continue to be a part of your creativity thank you so much for allowing me to share my poems