Amplify Poets of Color, Day 19

Learning Arabic

by Ruth Awad

Suspended in
the Téléphérique
above Harissa,
I see our salt-white
lady reach for Beirut.
Language is both
the cedar shade
and mountain road,
the bay licking the heels
of Jounieh. My auntie
teaches me the Arabic
word for cat. My
American tongue
and bare legs
say I’m Lebanese
only in blood.
She wants me
to learn.
If not for cables,
we would drop
to our deaths.
If not for our blood,
we’d be untethered.
What saves us
is the one
small thing:
a cable,
a call to prayer,
a new word
strung like a pearl
in the mouth
of a girl.

Source: https://thespectacle.wustl.edu/?p=1370

Most Poetry will post a poem by a poet of color, selected by our members, each day through the month of July.

Amplify Poets of Color, Day 18

The Good Life

by Tracy K. Smith

When some people talk about money
They speak as if it were a mysterious lover
Who went out to buy milk and never
Came back, and it makes me nostalgic
For the years I lived on coffee and bread,
Hungry all the time, walking to work on payday
Like a woman journeying for water
From a village without a well, then living
One or two nights like everyone else
On roast chicken and red wine.

Poem copyright ©2011 by Tracy K. Smith from her book of poems, LIFE ON MARS, Graywolf Press, 2011.

Most Poetry will post a poem by a poet of color, selected by our members, each day through the month of July.

Amplify Poets of Color, Day 17

A Small Needful Fact

by Ross Gay

Is that Eric Garner worked
for some time for the Parks and Rec.
Horticultural Department, which means,
perhaps, that with his very large hands,
perhaps, in all likelihood,
he put gently into the earth
some plants which, most likely,
some of them, in all likelihood,
continue to grow, continue
to do what such plants do, like house
and feed small and necessary creatures,
like being pleasant to touch and smell,
like converting sunlight
into food, like making it easier
for us to breathe.

Yesterday was the 6th anniversary of Eric Garner’s death. Copyright © 2015 by Ross Gay. Reprinted from Split This Rock’s The Quarry: A Social Justice Poetry Database and poets.org

Most Poetry will post a poem by a poet of color, selected by our members, each day through the month of July.

Summer Poetry Workshop Series

We’re really excited to share this poetry workshop with you:
The Short Poem Has Something to Say.
Facilitated by Gillian Wegener, this workshop will give participants the chance to read, write, and celebrate the short poem.

Bring your favorite short poem (under 14 lines)  to share!

Saturday, August 22, 2020 at 1:00; free and open to the public.

Join us at this link at 1:00:
meet.google.com/ppr-zzsg-rbn

or join by phone
‪(US) +1 314-666-1643‬ PIN: ‪924 932 741‬#

Poetry on Sunday Series

Please join us for the August edition of MoSt’s quarterly Poetry On Sunday Readings on Sunday, August 16th at 2:00 P. M., featuring three wonderful poets:  Linda Jackson Collins, Bob Stanley, and Jenny Tang!  While we look forward to a time we can all gather again at the Carnegie Arts Center, this time we’ll be on ZOOM.  Join us, too, for the Open Mic time following the featured readers!


Our Featured Readers:

Linda Jackson CollinsOriginally from Washington, D.C., Linda Jackson Collins studied English and Business at Vanderbilt. Linda rediscovered poetry about a decade ago, and her first book, Painting Trees, came out from Random Lane Press in 2019.

Linda served on the Sacramento Poetry Center’s board for many years and edited its poetry journal, Tule Review. She continues to write and collaborate with other poets from her home in Carmichael where she lives with her husband, Rob.


Bob StanleyBob Stanley has organized and led writing programs and classes for nearly fifty years.  He has edited two regional anthologies and published three collections of his own work: Walt Whitman Orders a Cheeseburger (Rattlesnake Press, 2009), Eleven Blue Strings (little m press, 2012), and Miracle Shine (CW Books, 2013). Bob served as Poet Laureate of Sacramento City and County from 2009 to 2012, and he lives in Sacramento with his wife, Joyce Hsiao.


Jenny Tang        Jenny Tang grew up traveling back and forth between Phoenix, Arizona and Beijing, China. She was first exposed to poetry through attending CalSlam performances at UC Berkeley, and has been featured in LoReLi (Look Read Listen) China, performed as a Sacrificial Poet in the 2019 Chill List Team Competition, and a winner of the 2019 Poet’s Corner Poetry Contest. She is currently a member of the Central Valley Poets Collective.