by Sharon Nyree Williams
Blaaaack Boy
Blaaaack Man
Blaaaack Child
Blaaaack Boy
Blaaaack Man
Blaaaack Child
You can push me away
But I’m here to love you
Tag Archives: Poetry
PONGO POETRY: I Hope
Pongo Poetry Project’s mission is to engage youth in writing poetry to inspire healing and growth. For over 20 years, Pongo has mentored poetry with youth at the Clark Children & Family Justice Center (CCFJC), King County’s juvenile detention facility.
Many CCFJC residents are Youth of Color who have endured traumatic experiences in the form of abuse, neglect, and exposure to violence. These incidents have been caused and exacerbated by community disinvestment, systemic racism, and other forms of institutional oppression. In collaboration with CCFJC staff, Pongo poetry writing offers CCFJC youth a vehicle for self-discovery and creative expression that inspires recovery and healing.
Through this special bimonthly column in partnership with the South Seattle Emerald, Pongo invites readers to bear witness to the pain, resilience, and creative capacity of youth whose voices and perspectives are too often relegated to the periphery. To learn more about Pongo’s work, join its GiveBig campaign today.
Continue reading PONGO POETRY: I Hope
POETRY: Life
by Noni Ervin
Life is a combination of
Seconds and minutes and hours
Days, months, years
Decisions and journeys both pleasant and painful
PONGO POETRY: I Still Speak
Pongo Poetry Project’s mission is to engage youth in writing poetry to inspire healing and growth. For over 20 years, Pongo has mentored poetry with children at the Child Study and Treatment Center (CSTC), the only state-run psychiatric hospital for youth in Washington State. Many CSTC youth are coping with severe emotional, behavioral, and mental health challenges. Approximately 40% of youth arrive at CSTC having been court ordered to get treatment; however, by the end of their stay, most youth residents become voluntary participants.
Pongo believes there is power in creative expression and articulating one’s pain to an empathetic audience. Through this special monthly column in partnership with the South Seattle Emerald, Pongo invites readers to bear witness to the pain, resilience, and creative capacity of youth whose voices and perspectives are too often relegated to the periphery. To partner with Pongo in inspiring healing and relief among youth coping with mental and emotional turmoil, register for Healing Verses, its National Poetry Month celebration!
POETRY: Use Your Words (or Unsolicited Advice to 2nd and 3rd Gen Asian Americans)
by Jen Soriano
After: Jeanann Verlee’s “unsolicited advice to adolescent girls with crooked teeth and pink hair.”
When they ask how you speak English so well, don’t feel proud.
When they tell you to go eat bat, tell them to go eat baby cow.
When they ask if you work at the Chinese restaurant down the street, ask if you can take their order — and their money.
When they harass you, push you, spit at you and blame you for COVID-19, raise your voice:
Say no to racism and xenophobia, and demand a world without scapegoats and hate
PONGO POETRY: My Mind
Pongo Poetry Project’s mission is to engage youth in poetry writing to inspire healing from trauma. For over 20 years, Pongo has mentored poetry with youth at the Children & Family Justice Center (CFJC), King County’s juvenile detention facility. Many CFJC residents are youth of color who have endured traumatic experiences in the form of abuse, neglect, and exposure to violence. These incidents have been caused and exacerbated by community disinvestment, systemic racism, and other forms of institutional oppression. In collaboration with CFJC staff, Pongo poetry writing offers CFJC youth a vehicle for self-discovery and creative expression that inspires recovery and healing. Through this special monthly column in partnership with the South Seattle Emerald, Pongo invites readers to bear witness to the pain, resilience, and creative capacity of youth whose voices and perspectives are too often relegated to the periphery.
Continue reading PONGO POETRY: My Mind
POETRY: Revolutionary Encounters
by Evelyn Chow
Free Write: “If the revolution will not be televised, where will it be seen?” (thank you Nikkita for the prompt)
You will not find the revolution posted in the window of the fancy new coffee shop down the block
Or at the ginger beer store run by the white lady with dreadlocks
The revolution will not have private security or no-trespassing signs
You will not simply put a #BlackLivesMatter banner in your driveway, window, or storefront because
The revolution will not be gentrified
Continue reading POETRY: Revolutionary Encounters
Pongo Poetry: My Heart is No Longer…
Pongo Poetry Project’s mission is to engage youth in writing poetry to inspire healing and growth. For over 20 years, Pongo has mentored poetry with children at the Child Study and Treatment Center (CSTC), the only state-run psychiatric hospital for youth in Washington State. Many CSTC youth are coping with severe emotional, behavioral, and mental health challenges. Approximately 40% of youth arrive at CSTC having been court ordered to get treatment; however, by the end of their stay, most youth residents become voluntary participants.
Pongo believes there is power in creative expression and articulating one’s pain to an empathetic audience. Through this special monthly column in partnership with the South Seattle Emerald, Pongo invites readers to bear witness to the pain, resilience, and creative capacity of youth whose voices and perspectives are too often relegated to the periphery. To partner with Pongo in inspiring healing and relief among youth coping with mental and emotional turmoil, register for Healing Verses, its National Poetry Month celebration!
Continue reading Pongo Poetry: My Heart is No Longer…
POETRY: Ode to Everyone At the Table
by Jenne Hsien Patrick
Ode to Everyone at the Table
When Mama cooks dinner she makes one dish
per person plus one or two; we patiently wait,
tightly packed, seated round the table made long
with two extensions that are never put away. My thighs brush
against 阿姨 on one side and my sister on the other,
at the long plastic wrapped table you can’t see the top of,
every inch is covered in plates of food. In front of me
is a mountain of rice in a bowl and a whole fish in broth,
Continue reading POETRY: Ode to Everyone At the Table
Year of the Ox
by Jiéyì 杰意 Ludden
新年快乐 Xīnnián kuàilè!
I was born in 1991 on the first day of Lunar New Year in Nagoya, Japan to a Chinese mother and a white American father. My brother, my dad, and I moved to the States when I was 5 and my mom followed a couple years later. Throughout elementary school, we would go back to China to stay with my mom’s family every other summer. We’d spend the whole school break there, almost three months at a time, and come back just in time for school to start in the fall. One year in early elementary school, we landed on the first official day of school, so I started school a day late. The, at the time, 14-hour time difference meant that I was so sleepy that first day back that I fell asleep during class. I’m grateful that my teacher was understanding.
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