Daily Nourishment for November 23, 2024: When a Writer Reminds You of Who You Are with Guidance from Ashley M. Jones
Daily Nourishment Read Time: 50 seconds
Pause/Prompt/Practice Time: 12 minutes
“you are a wonder” - Lucille Clifton
Prompt.
Here’s a quote from Ashley M. Jones about “what the mirror said”:
“There is urgency and meditation within those one-word lines. The reader must slow down to read them, but in each breath of line, they are all we can consume. The caesuras created by the line breaks give pause and purpose. This is a poem that was crafted, yes, but the content of the poem is what keeps me coming back. It’s why I have this poem framed and hung above my desk in my classroom. It’s there to remind me of who I am, of what poetry can be, of the way a Black woman can speak life over me even from the page, even from the Great Beyond. Lucille Clifton is a masterful poet. But she is more than the craft. She is the story.”
Practice.
Read “what the mirror said” two more times aloud.
Then read the quote above again and sit with it for a few minutes.
Take notes or journal for five minutes in response to the poem and the quote. What do these words stir in you? Which writers, poems, essays, or stories remind you of who you are?
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