Our ancestors appear
Faster than falling asleep/ more peaceful than the hour of yoga in the forest/ the ones you miss and/ didn’t know you missed come/ back to you, the unreal yous/ and finally see they and you and/ all were one all along
Farmersville, OH
AWP 2021: Beyond Sunrise
Traveling Stanzas | www.travelingstanzas.com
Our ancestors appear
I hate the grandmothers in poems/
Who bear pies and wisdom/
Poets need to leave grandmothers alone
AWP 2021: Beyond Sunrise
Traveling Stanzas | www.travelingstanzas.com
Personification
The Wind speaks in tense bursts. She tells me the world is changing. Love is not what it used to be. She is turning even the trees to nests of wire. This is not because she is indifferent, but because she cares. Why do we treat her sisters Earth Water as if they had no voice? She blows the trash bags into our fences. She tosses over our roofs and trash cans. Look, she says, here you are. You are one of us. Open your arms and feel me roar.
Lily
Colorado Springs
AWP 2021: Beyond Sunrise
Traveling Stanzas | www.travelingstanzas.com
Repetition
As I hold my pen of peace
js
VT
AWP 2021: Beyond Sunrise
Traveling Stanzas | www.travelingstanzas.com
Our ancestors appear
Here is my namesake, holding fire / motivating minds
Michael McGovern
Chagrin Falls, Ohio
Our ancestors appear
Here is my namesake, holding fire / motivating minds
Michael McGovern
Chagrin Falls, Ohio
AWP 2021: Beyond Sunrise
Traveling Stanzas | www.travelingstanzas.com
Grow human paths
Grow a human path
that will not forget
the blows of a virus
how we fought, yet.
A human path
not straight but bent
with trees and flowers
and pure intent
A human path
that folds upon fold
witness to the strength
in our hearts we hold.
A desire to conquer
capture and regain.
Grow a human path
Of freedom once again.
Vinita Agrawal
Delhi
AWP 2021: Beyond Sunrise
Traveling Stanzas | www.travelingstanzas.com
Grow human paths
human paths by a tree, human paths by your grumpy neighbor / step one, step two...
Baltimore
AWP 2021: Beyond Sunrise
Traveling Stanzas | www.travelingstanzas.com
Our ancestors appear
Nuestros antepasados nunca se han ido. | Abre las puertas y las ventanas de tu alma | Y sentirás la corriente eléctrica de su sangre | Y sus suspiros pasando por tu ser. | Respira. Profundamente. | Respira con alivio.
María Luisa Arroyo Cruzado | multilingual Boricua poet & intersectional feminist educator
Springfield, MA
Our ancestors appear
Nuestros antepasados nunca se han ido. | Abre las puertas y las ventanas de tu alma | Y sentirás la corriente eléctrica de su sangre | Y sus suspiros pasando por tu ser. | Respira. Profundamente. | Respira con alivio.
María Luisa Arroyo Cruzado | multilingual Boricua poet & intersectional feminist educator
Springfield, MA
AWP 2021: Beyond Sunrise
Traveling Stanzas | www.travelingstanzas.com
Grow human paths
Grow human paths, by seeking out your family who you have since become sick of.
Ask them how are you doing, and listen listen as if that is the only thing in the world.
Ruslan Black
NYC
AWP 2021: Beyond Sunrise
Traveling Stanzas | www.travelingstanzas.com
Repetition
Beyond the setting sun there is cooling of tempers./Beyond the night there is warming of hearts and laying down of arms/so limbs can lock in love./Beyond the new day there is a new era/full of drumming and dancing and dining on the delectable tastes/of freedom and peace and justice for all and each.
Jennifer A. Hudson
Stratford, CT
Repetition
Beyond the setting sun there is cooling of tempers./Beyond the night there is warming of hearts and laying down of arms/so limbs can lock in love./Beyond the new day there is a new era/full of drumming and dancing and dining on the delectable tastes/of freedom and peace and justice for all and each.
Jennifer A. Hudson
Stratford, CT
AWP 2021: Beyond Sunrise
Traveling Stanzas | www.travelingstanzas.com
Our ancestors appear
THE WISDOM OF MY ANCESTORS
Our ancestors appear beyond the horizon, offering wisdom... a reminder that the only thing permanent in the world is impermanence... All shapes and forms dismantle. All shades and colors faint... Every sound fizzles, and every touch is meant to be void at the end... I do not know where I have come from, where I would go... the day I'm void of touch, color, sound, and form, which identify me... The only thing I know, I come and go... Someday, I will rise on the horizon to tell this story to my children... continuing my journey... (Poem resubmitted due to an error before.)
Kalpna Singh-Chitnis
Irvine (California)
Our ancestors appear
THE WISDOM OF MY ANCESTORS
Our ancestors appear beyond the horizon, offering wisdom... a reminder that the only thing permanent in the world is impermanence... All shapes and forms dismantle. All shades and colors faint... Every sound fizzles, and every touch is meant to be void at the end... I do not know where I have come from, where I would go... the day I'm void of touch, color, sound, and form, which identify me... The only thing I know, I come and go... Someday, I will rise on the horizon to tell this story to my children... continuing my journey... (Poem resubmitted due to an error before.)
Kalpna Singh-Chitnis
Irvine (California)
AWP 2021: Beyond Sunrise
Traveling Stanzas | www.travelingstanzas.com
Personification
The dirt road carries our footprints, seems to hold them extra long in its wet flesh to remind us that others have recently passed by, that they are still here.
Anonymous
Anonymous
AWP 2021: Beyond Sunrise
Traveling Stanzas | www.travelingstanzas.com
Our ancestors appear
Our ancestor appear beyond the horizon, offering wisdom,/
a reminder that the only thing permanent in the world is impermanence./ All shapes and forms dismantle./ All shades and colors faint. /Every sound fizzles, and every touch is meant to be void at the end./ I do not know where I have come from, where would I go,/ the day I'm void of touch, color, sound, and form, which identify me./The only thing I know, I come and go./Someday, I will rise on the horizon to tell this story to my children, continuing my journey.
Kalpana Singh-Chitnis
Irvine
Our ancestors appear
Our ancestor appear beyond the horizon, offering wisdom,/
a reminder that the only thing permanent in the world is impermanence./ All shapes and forms dismantle./ All shades and colors faint. /Every sound fizzles, and every touch is meant to be void at the end./ I do not know where I have come from, where would I go,/ the day I'm void of touch, color, sound, and form, which identify me./The only thing I know, I come and go./Someday, I will rise on the horizon to tell this story to my children, continuing my journey.
Kalpana Singh-Chitnis
Irvine
AWP 2021: Beyond Sunrise
Traveling Stanzas | www.travelingstanzas.com
Grow human paths
Grow human paths by sneaking out at night just to take a few deep breathes, listen to the cicadas, and have nothing to show for it but mosquito bites the next day. Grow human paths by reading to the little ones. Grow human paths by deviating from the social script at a funeral to ask an honest question, and watch the grieving smile for the first time in a while. Grow human paths with the words "I wish I knew what I could say to make it better." Grow human paths in the ocean, try to guess what I'm saying when I'm underwater. Grow human paths by accepting that your first impressions are not always right, but your gut is. Even when the land is covered in thorns, rocks, and ash grow human paths in compassion.
Shannon Rose
Youngstown, OH
Grow human paths
Grow human paths by sneaking out at night just to take a few deep breathes, listen to the cicadas, and have nothing to show for it but mosquito bites the next day. Grow human paths by reading to the little ones. Grow human paths by deviating from the social script at a funeral to ask an honest question, and watch the grieving smile for the first time in a while. Grow human paths with the words "I wish I knew what I could say to make it better." Grow human paths in the ocean, try to guess what I'm saying when I'm underwater. Grow human paths by accepting that your first impressions are not always right, but your gut is. Even when the land is covered in thorns, rocks, and ash grow human paths in compassion.
Shannon Rose
Youngstown, OH
AWP 2021: Beyond Sunrise
Traveling Stanzas | www.travelingstanzas.com
Our ancestors appear
as stars in the blackness above,
peering down on us like their little
children playing with blocks
building to reach our great
grandmothers and grandfathers
hoping for a chance
to finally understand where we
stand in existence.
Isaiah Hunt
Cleveland, OH
Our ancestors appear
as stars in the blackness above,
peering down on us like their little
children playing with blocks
building to reach our great
grandmothers and grandfathers
hoping for a chance
to finally understand where we
stand in existence.
Isaiah Hunt
Cleveland, OH
AWP 2021: Beyond Sunrise
Traveling Stanzas | www.travelingstanzas.com
Our ancestors appear
Mom whispers when I vow to quit: do not bury your talents under a bushel/ keep singing even if the chorus is gone til/ strength pours forth enough to share/ enough to lift those wings a bit beyond the drag
Betsy Lynch
Plattsburgh, NY
Our ancestors appear
Mom whispers when I vow to quit: do not bury your talents under a bushel/ keep singing even if the chorus is gone til/ strength pours forth enough to share/ enough to lift those wings a bit beyond the drag
Betsy Lynch
Plattsburgh, NY
AWP 2021: Beyond Sunrise
Traveling Stanzas | www.travelingstanzas.com
Our ancestors appear
Our ancestors appear/to tell us they, too, were tired/to show us the plain of grass glittering with locusts/to show us the burnt pie dish/and how they chewed on even the blackened pieces of the crust/they tell us early freeze/they tell us clouded sunrise/they tell us look for the smallest ghost green/the newest blades that seem so naked in the morning air/they tell us keep walking, keep walking.
Sheila
San Antonio, Texas
Our ancestors appear
Our ancestors appear/to tell us they, too, were tired/to show us the plain of grass glittering with locusts/to show us the burnt pie dish/and how they chewed on even the blackened pieces of the crust/they tell us early freeze/they tell us clouded sunrise/they tell us look for the smallest ghost green/the newest blades that seem so naked in the morning air/they tell us keep walking, keep walking.
Sheila
San Antonio, Texas
AWP 2021: Beyond Sunrise
Traveling Stanzas | www.travelingstanzas.com