Poetry Rejoicing / Poetry Ranting

Today, like every other day, we wake up empty
and frightened. Don’t open the door to the study
and begin reading. Take down a musical instrument.

Let the beauty we love be what we do.
There are hundreds of ways to kneel and kiss the ground.

- By Rumi
- Translated by Coleman Barks

Excerpt from ii. Improvisation

there is something caught in my throat
it is this place
my baby is sleeping
i check to see if she is alive
she does not know about gagging
she does not have this place / in her throat
she doesn’t know where we are
how it sears the membranes
eats the words right outta your mouth
leaves you suckin’ pollutants impotence
& failure/

- By Ntozake Shange