I'm a Growing Woman

PAD Challenge Day 30: Write a closing time poem. P.M. (Poem Meridiem) there is no final hour no shortage of pages there is no closure for black lyrics and I this is a lifetime “Con Te Partiro" with no whispering orchestra no choir mothering and fathering harmony no distance intervals waiting for the arrival of a fat lady to sing these verses come from the crevices of black bloody bones dismantling ungifted cycles these are gospel hymns that’ll never meet the top ten these are answered prayers rejoicing total praise with warm finger snaps, rounds of applause for the truth written boldly without a dare, a screeching glory, an uncertain Amen or a mumbling hallelujah these are side-by-side alphabet lovers walking page to page by faith these are syllables of grace taking the wheel of change to resurrect a discounted soul with no byline or necessary accolade in mind just pure joy riding shot gun through every beat p

PAD Challenge Day 29: Write a response poem. The Variation of Dreams (after Langston Hughes’ Dreams) Dreams are life Dreams are lungs breathing air twice Dreams are songs you want to sing out loud Dreams are black skin wearing freedom proud Dreams will make you cry Dreams will make you ask a million questions “why” Dreams will make you sore Dreams will burn your fingers down to the core Dreams will have the world laughing at you Dreams will have the world throwing cash at you Dreams can be sabotaged Dreams can be camouflaged Dreams can be manipulated Dreams can be stimulated Dreams can just be a daydream Dreams can calculate a new mean Dreams will never be, if you never be, The dreamer beyond the dreaming scene D'Elegant One

PAD Challenge Day 28: Take the phrase “(blank) Wave,” replace the blank with a word or phrase, make the new phrase the title of your poem. Never-ending Wave Children, Heavenly born legacies; Flowers with ancestral souls Shifting a pastime of struggles to triumph; Seeking future with every blink of an eye; Practicing freedom with every precious breath, persistently growing to be a new never-ending wave. D'Elegant One

PAD Challenge Day 27: Write a story poem. He Said, She Said   He said when I’m not there, his king sheets become ice cold he feels black and blue all through his soul his plate of insecurities eats him up, day and night his temporary desires drinks him out of his pockets He said ever since I cut him off his common sense ain’t been right he said sorry to press you only when I’m sick and distressed I know I’m a man in some ugly-pretty mess I know we both want soulmates like Nicholas Sparks’ Notebook and Brown Sugar’s Sidney and Dre I know we shared our pain I know we shared our dreams I know we shared Friday nights lights and Saturday mornings like it was the end of our time I know I’m still defining the man in me. I know your still trying to trust and unravel your heart again, after he broke it without reasons. He said I know- I know, I only call and text at my leisure Invite you to dine, sip wine, And share my music with me, listen to your poetry, then

PAD Challenge Day 26: Write a relationship poem. My Blood I want my blood to stay thick Thick like the cotton king and gin of the south Thick like poetry slammed out of a poet’s mouth Thick like the cruel oil that fueled the Atlantic Slave Trade of my ancestors Thick like the black lives matter protesters Thick like constitutions, fighting between black lines  for liberty and justice for us Thick like asphalts, Blueprinted for all black everything to occur where no one can’t walk over us or we feel ignored Thick like cement shoes, But our feet ain’t the ones glued Thick like 8mm tire thread, rolling deep to lift one up drop another off to reap  Thick like curry oxtails in Caribbean stew Thick like black legacies saving the souls of HBCUs Thick like summer block parties lit by Doug E. Fresh and Slick Rick Thick like Nina Simone's greatest hits Thick like Nana’s neckbones saturating loose leaves of collards greens Thick like

PAD Challenge Day 25: Pick an intriguing and/seldom-used word, make it the title of your poem. SpottieOttieDopaliscious She is goddess; a woman with a diameter heart for the black circumference. She distills latitudinal love from her scenic ocean. She can sporadic brown sugar and cream. She is free verses over southplayalisticadillacmuzik. Her natural roots story tells her spiraled life. Her emotions are abstracts engraved with caution tape. Her womb is a garden that bees try to colonize and buzz about. Her hips are sweet buttered sculptures. Her spirit is jazzy hip-hop beats baptized and equalized per the notes of her footprints.............................. D'Elegantone

Two-for Tuesday PAD Challenge Day 24: Write a roundelay poem. And/or anti-form poem. You Love Black but You Hate Blacks I. they love the blackness of nightly skies along with it shining stars and moonlights drinking black beans in black ties black little dresses and black skin tights accessing black code laws to maximize black nightmares for all dark shades in sight II. They’ll hug coal for diamond revenue They’ll soothe a black oyster for a pearl over a black girl They’ll harass you when you walk through their white avenue They’ll black ball, brown nose, and lip curl They’ll break your black skin blue They’ll sleep on black sheets, not even toss or twirl. III. Love to shade black Love to control black like a disease Love to flip black jack Love to play on black keys Love to laugh at black on black Love to kill black to black with ease IV. It’s true; some of you do. Hate, hate, hate, and more hate With no evidenc

PAD Challenge Day 23: Write an action poem. Buenos Aires: Lleva al Tango Si senor! Let your Chesnutt  skin meet my bronze Let’s kept this thang  upright with each other Dance this dance of sorrow  with romance sweating from the pores of our hearts Dance the drama out of the motionless characters on our lips Dance the dirty, dying sex living within our hips Take me as I take you Confiscate these unsung passions  boiling underneath my porcelain skin Let no space breathe between our evaporating bodies Assume your position Move forward to  obstruct me, bend my back erupt me obtuse then acute me, Twirl the desires hidden in my hair Thrust me new pathways to follow as my leg rub against your leg Slow, slow, quick-quick, slow Gathering t-a-n-g-o as we go Making it harder for you  to turn me loose before you set  yourself free D'ElegantOne

PAD Challenge Day 22: Pick and planet, make it the title of your poem. Black Sunflower Tiny seed from rich black soulful history blossoming tall beauty sprout hearts as leaves head adjacent to God’s sky countless ringlets of smiles bright florets that kisses stars and clouds undying oil fuels and burns longevity guided by light  from east to west  summer’s rain enhances me to shadow the rest D'ElegantOne Photo taken by Rowan Far Beck (thanks homie) LOL

PAD Challenge Day 21: Write a danger poem. Through Hail and Back When you look at me, your eyes are always in wonderland- wondering how I Mayweathered my last love storm too. I’ll tell you- it wasn’t easy having my joy dumped into a mudslide that created muddy, sorrowful rivers on the left and right-side of the bridge of my nose. Where my water waded and waded and waded on my skin until they returned to still waters that only ran deep to  repair my cells, tissues, and organs. BUT  I ain’t shipwrecked no more. I ain’t high and dry no more. I ain’t broken no more. And love for self never went into drought. Nor did my lights ever go out. With all the power within me, I stayed equipped to flash all this " little light of mine ". I mean, I sat through those gray skies and studied those gathering storm clouds. I watched the changing faces of his rain drops and everything. They didn’t sound right or look right after

PAD Challenge Day 20: Take a line from an earlier poem (preferably from this month), to begin your poem for today.   Prepare to Hand Out May Flowers Prepare to hand out May flowers. Hurry, hurry up Roses, Tulips, Dandelions and Steel magnolias. Come confidently proud, in memory of your first sweet baby breathes in blue or pink- celebrate the queendom that birthed you. Mother’s Day is on the way we need not delay, then again, mothers are mothers everyday to those living, decreased, stillborn, and miscarried. So, April cry, cry, cry baby for all of her joy and pain through morning sickness, swollen ankles and veins, twist and turns, excessive weight gain, itching and back burns, hot flashes and alopecia. Come on April, cry, cry, cry baby, pay her garden womb with love for the bloodline, the chemistry to breathe, the natural minerals and nutrition to fed her offsprings. Time is now April gone and cry, cry baby cry for: The single mom The wedlock

PAD Challenge Day 19: Take the phrase “(blank) Thread”, replace with a word or phrase; make the new phrase the title of your poem. needle & thread In the beginning, you were a man of steel, a heart of platinum. I was your fine silk- strongly cultivated, happily, looped freely around you. Together, we sewed sweet embroideries of denoted love. We boldly exchanged solid sense of freedom for intimacy. Flamboyantly, we quilted our melanin with Kente, danced African rituals through black, red and green areas- until you became bent, and it was hard-to-see eye-to-eye through the complicated loops we tangled and weaved. Subconsciously, my doubled strands became insufficient and cut ties to spin self back whole from you. D'ElegantOne    

PAD Challenge Day 18: Write a temptation poem.   dark chocolate My sweet tooth never had your kind of chocolate before. Boy, I got an urge now. I mean every time you swivel your decadence around my cherry blossom; my lows vanish; you become my personal cocoa sun; my aphrodisiac, my favorite brain food; grounded and roasted along my Godiva caramel. One nibble at a time, stimulating a sufficient supply of vitamin D, mellowing my mood, peacefully calming my nerves, regulating my blood pressure, curving my cravings and my curves, soothing my soul, boasting my energy, while curing my blues with every gram of your sugarcane until my fruit is delicately saturated by your temporary sugar rush. D'ElegantOne

Two-for-Tuesday PAD Challenge Day 17: Write a love poem. And/or anti-love poem. First Corinthians Thirteen   God, eternal bones; Son, true blood through thick and thin; Holy Ghost, open air.      Red Angel   Disguises love acts; Possess spiritual mischiefs; Boast proud with envy. D'Elegant One

PAD Challenge Day 16: Write a favorite poem. Soul Mating I want to lay heart to heart with you Listen like no other woman has Learn your favorites, pet peeves and past Synchronize my soul with your soul Share harmonies, poetry, and tempos Breakdown walls and obstacles Count stars, pillow talk until we fall asleep Attend to your emotions, Be your rock when you’re weak Cry, fall and rise with you Wake up, share morning kisses and backrubs Dance circles around an island kitchen and cook gourmet with you Sleep in, ignore calls, cancel meeting just to drown in satin sheets with you Play board games, kick back, suck on buffalo wings and yell through sports with you Roam foreign lands, Sip fine wine, dutty wine at concerts with you Exchange vows, raise a tribe, and serve for the people with you Monopolize, stock up, Impart on philosophy, and kill curiosity with you Pretend to be mad, make goofy faces, kiss up, laugh again into another lifetime with

PAD Challenge Day 15: Write a metaphor poem. Planeteer I am Earth= Round, full, and hot to the core I gravitate all day every day I kiss the sun in the morning Make love to the moon at night I got atmosphere in all my hemispheres I got soul in my soil I got chemistry with physics and biology.  I can cry blues until my skies’ clouds fade dance evergreen all year long without a witness to my rotational escapades I am Fire= The most flammable flame of all flames I can light up your life and leave a glow Transmit heat to warm your soul Ignite your life Have you lively in love with your imagination Stir up passion elegantly Eliminate dullness with my brilliance transpire ample love as my remembrance I am Wind= The coolest breeze I can whisper to your soul Knock you down on both knees Uplift you and loan directions Spare you common scents Loosen your apparel between whirlwind Just to run wild against your bare skin I am

PAD Challenge Day 14: Write a report poem. Minority Report: The State of a Black Woman in America We are now live in 2018. Still a danger to society Tightly coiled or sometime loose like the roots of our hair Never or almost are we straight Because we are still the most degraded, underrated, and underpaid women of color Sometimes unsure of which women hates us the most, the one with thin lips or full ones like ours But we are not discouraged or afraid of side eyes or petty, jealous ways. Because we are aware of how far we’ve come. Far from the soil that queened us to injustice lands that only want to see us on display like Sarah Baartman. Just so they can grab us by the pussy or mistake us for being a pussy But we are not. We are still wearing our crowns through all women's suffrage That we collected at birth, generating black lives matter movements, Collecting bachelors, master’s, PhDs, M.D.'s and J.D.'S Ownin

PAD Challenged Day 13: Pick an insect, make it the title of your poem, and then, write your poem.   Black Fly Don’t want to bug you or be attracted to shit; just fly black and free. Honeybee Lover I love how you bee stinging; viscously beekeeping my hive pollenated. I love how you queen me; you bee waxing my honeycomb- Exciting my nectar until it wholly distill sticky sweetness. Ladybug I mean no harm. I'm just a black-dotted lady of love, a good luck charm- here to convey pure bliss. Now, hold me, make a wish. D'ElegantOne

PAD Challenge Day 12: Write a lament poem. Good Grief: Kansas City’s Blues Finally, my heart stopped bleeding; but my soul is still wounded, stitched and scabbed. My pain has descended from a ten to a five. For almost a year, I kept asking myself, " Are you strong enough to recover your emotions from your sleeve, keep April’s showers off your face and prepare to hand out May flowers ?" Because since your sweet chariot swung low, Granny Ruby, I have to buy two bundles now, one for Mother’s Day, another for your death day. Single every rose out again, stem them along the Paseo until I reach 18 th and Vine; let living souls in sync with all-that-jazz feel and smell the love you can’t anymore; then drop a few petals by the intercom because  your name has been temporarily replaced with -UNKNOWN-, air and key tones. beeEEEEEEEEEEEEp ACCESS GRANTED! I’ll just welcome myself, trail flowers to the right, down the hallway until I reach apar

PAD Challenge Day 11: Write a warning poem. LOVE: Enter at Your Own Risk Love, What is going on with you, love? Haven’t our hearts had enough FRAGILE,    handle with care moments? How many loves are tired of fake love ones, full of b.s., messing up love over and over again like we ain’t CAUTION enough to know phony love is really slippery when wet and cold hearts are strong to ice bridges before the next Dangerous routes, of multiple causal affairs that lead to causalities with no terms of endearment, little bits of monogamies, and no limbic resonance experiments. No emotional intimacy before the familiarity of erogenous zones, just weak ass associate and friend zones. Hearts heartless and knowledge less of filial piety for society but has restricted heartbeats for empathy and sympathy towards familial love, parental love, marital love, spiritual love, brotherly love, and sisterly love. just STOP it! Think twice and  look both ways bef

Two-for-Tuesday PAD Challenge Day 10: Write a deal poem. And/or Write a no deal poem. Lyrical Transaction Allow your heart to be my college rule. Let me write love -n- happiness between the lines, over every beat for a lifetime. Deal?   Tuesday’s Morning News (4/10/18)   I don’t know if Bill Crosby is a rapist or not. This uncertainty is bittersweet. I really don’t know. I can only imagine if I was a victim pushed down in distress Tied like cattle, Knocked out unconsciously, Drugged until my eyes meet the back of my eyelids, or lay wide-awake, quiet ask kept, life tangled and strangled for the moment and my legs of freedom are prisoners to a beast while my innocent is mutilated, my womanhood is scorned for life, and my inner prayers are blaring "why God?" as my soul escapes me, penetration after penetration. I can only imagine because I don’t know. But I can tell you what I do know. Sex slavery is real Human trafficking is r

Day 9: Take the phrase “Battle (blank)”, replace the blank with a word or phrase, make the new the title of your poem.   When Battling Abnormal Cells There is pricking then probing. It’s even more mysterious when there is no pain or other symptoms. It’s even more petrifying if you've never been diagnosed. A malignant test is a nightmare on Cancer St. You’ll definitely know your blood, sweat, and tears for sure. It is the worst pill between the blue and the red one, for you and your family to swallow No matter the stage. No matter the phase. You wouldn’t even wish it on the lover or the friends you lost when battling it. Funny how magnetic resonance imaging becomes a new angelic friend, happy to see you through and show others the miracle God has already seen to help keep your life from being uncontrollably destroyed inside-out. D'ElegantOne

PAD Challenge Day 8: Write a family poem.   Family Reunion A holiday Taken off to take on for the culture. A ritual practice In memory of ancestry A keepsake for the present A heirloom for the entire future An open invitation for the ancient and novel to know that grandma’s grandma ain’t really dead. Her voice is the old negro spiritual chanting under the peach tree. Her quilt is the family’s Bible, Picture perfectly storytelling the family’s sacrifices and scriptures. Her spirit is the soul food: The only family secret not swept under the rug. D'Elegant One

PAD Challenge Day 7: Write a senses poem. Until We Become Familiar with Love Again On lonely days like this, I want to hear you closer because dialing ten numbers makes it tough to share the colors of the day with you. With you there, me here, we can’t show and tell  our true yellow  and blue days. We can only imagine  the size  of the pain  and the  volume of joy. Can you, meet me halfway share  common sense while we paint our hearts blissfully red until our faces and souls are golden? Can you come closer, so that I can feed you unconditionally- Introduce you to the tastings of healthy loving from my pyramid of daily spiritual bread, fruitful pieces of peace, and delicate servings of trust saturated in faith and empathy. Can you come here, let me warm aloe for your shattered heart. Lift a needle onto vinyl records; loan your heart a new beat that only we can speak in tongue and dance our calcium bones to through hai