A Poet’s Necessity
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Hello friends, I’m thinking about poetry this week, mostly because the great writer, teacher, and activist Nikki Giovanni died at the age of 81. Poetry was the constant companion of my childhood, teens, and twenties. I read poetry voraciously, and wrote. I always wrote. I stood up in cafés and bars and read my words out loud, testing my voice and shaping my world. I still read and write poetry occasionally, but even when I don’t, poetry has formed me. My breaths are marked in meters and my eye catches rain on leaves in a way only a poet can. Nikki Giovanni was one of the poets who influenced my youth. She wrote of simple things and grand things. She wrote about falling in love, relationships, and place. She wrote about revolution and social systems, honeysuckle and the stars. She wrote about being Black and a woman in the US. She wrote about history and math and physics, and the ways they fill our bodies and our lives. sometimes after midnight or just before
the dawn
we sit typewriter in hand
pulling loneliness around us
forgetting our lovers or children
who are sleeping
ignoring the weary wariness
of our own logic
to compose a poem
no one understands it…
Giovanni showed how the smallest things resonate out to the largest, and how vastness dances with the minute. I drank those lessons in on her words. Yes, poetry formed me, and for that, I feel grateful. Thank you, Nikki Giovanni. May you rest in peace. Your words live on. Best wishes - Thorn Want some gentle insight? The You Are the Spell oracle deck and book offers poetic, meditative food for thought.
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T. Thorn Coyle
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