H E A L I N G ▫ A R T S
It’s National Poetry Month! Let’s celebrate poetry!
Poetry has been a part of my life since I was a little girl. One of my earliest memories related to poetry is of a large children’s book I had that was filled with African-American poetry and beautiful illustrations. (Oh my goodness, I found it! This is the book! *tears*)
I am excited to share that my poem “The Process” is featured in the Fall 2021 issue of Snapdragon: A Journal of Art & Healing.
This year Snapdragon Journal has been focusing on grief, including how it shapes us and how we move through it. The fall issue centers on bargaining, the third phase of the stages of grief as outlined by Elisabeth Kübler-Ross.
Continue ReadingHello friends! I was recently invited to share a reflection with the One Boat: International Chaplaincy for Covid Times community. My talk is called “Poetry as Prayer: Tools for Resilience in Challenging Times.” I discussed poetry as a form of prayer, as demonstrated by the Psalms, which provide a rich example of not only emotional and artistic expression, but profound and life-changing intimacy with God.
I share other examples of poetic expression as prayer (and as a way to cope with life’s challenges) and give some quick tips on how to venture into the practice.
Continue ReadingThis poem is, among several things, a celebration of Black creators in whose works we are reminded of our beauty and dignity. Their creations are our mirrors – the reflection is truth.
This Burden/This Strength (for Ahmaud)
by Tiffany Nicole Fletcher
1.
My sisters and I bear a strange burden:
we anticipate, we push back this ghost of fear,
we take in the story of the latest one and we steel ourselves—
we manage the threat of a silent war.
Even those who don’t believe find themselves offering supplication
to the Most High
to cover their sons and brothers fathers and uncles—
cover my grandfather and husband, they pray.
That they would not be hunted down like dogs and killed,
that they would not end up martyrs because of the fears of small men.