Day 17: Black Poetry Day

Today is Black poetry day which means I get to recommend Maya Angelou.

Easiest place to start is with Maya Angelou: The Complete Poetry.

https://uk.bookshop.org/a/5048/9780349006215

And also suggest you follow James Pogson on LinkedIn, who writes amazing poetry and prose, and who is a wise owl.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/james-pogson-617aa812/

And now for your prompt: set a timer for 5 minutes and write about what comes up for you when you think of Black poets and Black poetry.

I know that for me, for the longest time, it was a white man whose face appeared, indistinctly, in my mind, when I thought of poetry and poets.

Then as I read more widely, it was Emily Dickinson.

Now, I see a cluster of faces. Some white, some brown, some Black. But it was a telling moment for me, the first time I realised what I pictured when I thought of a poet…

Representation matters. So does diversity of thought, opinion, writing, lived experience, culture… everything really.

Happy writing!

TTFN,

Vicky

p.s. Connect with me on Instagram and share your experience with the community. Share your writing if you want to—we'd love to read it! Tag @tinybeetlesteps and follow the hashtags #moxieOCTOBER and #tinybeetlesteps

p.p.s. If Instagram isn't your thing, you can also find me on LinkedIn and Twitter, and use those hashtags there too!