Category: celebrating

7 Years From 50

·

There you have it —-43. #HereSheCome

This was taken in May 2024.

🗣️HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME!

I have determined to be a wildcat. The type of wildcat that Flannery O’Connor was.

There are things I have discovered in this 42nd year of life, that I am elated about — and that are concerning. The most concerning thing is how much I have slept on myself.

How I didn’t trust what was in me, that I shrank for the comfort of people who wouldn’t grow. That I doubted when I should and dig deeper— that I didn’t speak up when I should have! This 42 made me formidable! It made me sharper, and made me trust the gifts that I have, and stretch out into them.

I am learning that I am worthy of all good things —including rest. Including spoiling myself, and doing things that I like.

I am on the precipice if having adult children in the next 3 years, while slowly becoming okay with being middle-aged woman.

At the point, I’m chasing dreams, bags, and paper. A man is not the the focal point — and not a plan.

I’m a happy single woman— and freer than I have been, ever.

I am a decade into my writing career and closing in on 35 published works. I’m submitting books to libraries — and I have an opportunity to speak to a university soon—an HBCU no less!

When people ask what is a Queen without a King? Queens are more powerful.

And…I’m just getting started.

Get Up, Josh!

·

How can thunder grow quiet?

In 35 years

And more home runs

Probably more home runs

Than Babe Ruth

We get the truth

That is Josh Gibson.

And now the world is asunder

How his numbers

Were ever underneath

The flag of white supremacy?!

It is always the visibility

Of Black that they hate.

And we —

The poets —

Cross the mighty Mississippi

With pens and tongues

On this sacred pilgrimage

To pull you from obscurity

Into reality

That is 21st century

As the evil ones

Seek to deprive

All things from

Those who look like you.

Believing we are

Easily replaceable,

If not…erasable.

But we are still Black.

Our voices are tills

And plows

Traveling to the dirt in

Allegheny,

We say

“Get up, Josh!”

“Get up, Josh!”

Because your legacy is not dead!

“Get up Josh!”

Because there are still

Those who have

Your legacy trapped

As memory in their heads!

“Get up, Josh!”

Because we understand

What they did to you

Was wrong

And yet your name is

Now song

As your stats

Are included to

Make

Memory

Into

Legacy.

We need you to get up, Josh!

We need you to get up, Josh

And understand that we didn’t forget.

We have always remembered,

Because you are still

The superhero that our grandparents

Saw causing them to know the first Superman was Black!

From your memory,

They got strength—

And stand a little straighter.

They remembered

What it was like

Listening to games when

Radios were balanced

On radiators,

When they stood on

Hind’s feet

Over fences to watch you play!

We pulled you

From the dirt

Of their forgetting.

We put you on our backs as armor!

Get up, Josh!

Don’t you hear us calling?

We call for you as water

Does the ground

You lay in —

But it is only fitting

Grass surround you.

Get up, Josh!

For we summon your memory

To make you icon

To put you where you

Were always supposed

To be.

Because …we see you.

We have always seen you.

Now—

the world can’t look away.

-JBHarris, 5.30.2024

Note: This poem was written to celebrate the May 29, 2024 decision from the MLB incorporating statistics from the Negro Leagues, making the database more complete. With this addition, Josh Gibson is the leader all-time in several categories.

Mothers On Mothers Day

·

MAMA. The maker and destroyers of destinies and worlds. -JBHarris

Mothers On Mother’s Day

If I tell you happy Mother’s Day,

it means I see you sis.

It means I see you

doing is best you can

as long as you can,

and sometimes you do the can

even when you don’t know

where the rest will come from.

When I tell you

Happy Mother’s Day,

that means I believe in you,

that I want the best for you,

know that there is no one quite like you.

If I tell you Happy Mother’s Day,

that means I see all

you will become,

all that you’ve had to overcome,

even when no one

would come to you

when you needed them.

Even in those darkest times,

when you wish

the love of a mother was yours —

you can share mine.

When you didn’t see

your way clear,

when the world gave you

dark when all you needed

was light —

and you persisted.

Through rain and sleet and snow, thunderbolts

lightning crashes,

and its flashes,

taking everything from you.

And you persisted.

As godmother,

as foster mother,

Adopted mother

Bonus moms

as a sister from another mister—

You are the being essential as

part of a village.

Seeing the children in your world

as those who could never leave it,

leaving your love in their bones.

You see, no mother works alone.

You are needed and necessary,

And necessary to be needed.

And in the need,

in the try,

you still manage

to wipe tears from your own eyes, to

plant trees that you may never feel the shade from.

But all eat the fruit thereof.

Fighting wars that were yours never to be won.

Through stress,

Strife, causalities,

The skies burning—

Or falling!—

And the 10,000 falling

By your right side

And stride forward.

Through grief and loss, you still are called mother.

The repairing,

Generational curse breaking

through the apprehension,

even through sometimes

active addiction,

someone called you: MAMA.

Through trauma, you showed up…

And even through that

As the children who survived

and remain forgive you

when you couldn’t do anything…but give up.

Happy Mother’s Day

is complicated

because that’s the title

even if you die—

no one will ever take away.

Or replace.

-JBHarris, Mother’s Day 2024

#42: Jenn & Jackie Robinson

·

“God built me to last.” -Jack Roosevelt Robinson

This was taken in November 2022. STUNNING!

42. The Kid is 42.

In these 42 trips around the sun, I am amazed that I have gotten go this age. Not because my life was so risky—but some of my decisions were!

I am a divorcèe, and the mother of 2 teenagers. I am also the tour de force behind:

-3 podcasts (The Writers’ Block, WhatJayeSaid: The Podcast, I NEED THE VELMAS)

-2 YT channels

-a small publishing company (Divinity Publishing)

-a social media presence that includes 170,000+ on TikTok

-a budding media company (Firestarter Media LLC)

-The Traditional Women Series (we are on Book 4!)

-20 books (18 books poetry, 1 novel, 1 memoir)

This beauty is loading…July 2023

This year? I owe myself everything. I slept on myself, shrunk and…hid! I’m done shrinking! This year, I feel more settled into who I am—and will become.

One of the blessings I take with me into #42 is reconnecting with my father’s family—because my daughter asked. And from that? I found my childhood sweetheart, whom I only refer to as #BlackAdam. Like I found him! That’s a —whew!—chile, just read Sweethearts & Lovenotes.

I feel heavy as a woman: there is so much more to me than there was before! That heaviness comes from me knowing who I am now and refusing to settle.

I have incredible friends, a future that I am running towards and a God that keeps favoring me! I have centered myself and realize that if any man fumbled me? He wanted to lose!

There is so much more to explore, to do, and (of course) to write! The Kid is 42, but ain’t hit her stride yet…