Hi all you cool writers and poets!

Today, we read the revolutionary Assata Shakur’s “Affirmations” from her self-titled autobiography (which you should purchase from a Black-owned bookstore if you don’t have it already).

Here is Annie Dillard’s 1973 essay that she wrote for The Atlantic, entitled “The Force That Drives Flowers.”

Here is Toni Morrison’s 1976 lecture “Moral Inhabitants” (page 32) -- I highly recommend it, like I do all things Toni Morrision. Though this link sends you to the digital copy of Morrison’s essay, speech, and lecture collection book, The Source of Self-Regard, where the lecture is featured, I always believe in buying physical copies of the book if you can. Used or Black-owned bookstores are always my preference.

Here’s where the reference to “things with feathers” comes from.

And here’s Alexander Pope’s “An Essay on Man: Epistle 1” -- truly a breathtaking poem that’s worth a full read.

I also mentioned Bell Hooks’ book All About Love, which is a profoundly beautiful book that I think should be required reading for all humans looking to create a more loving inner and outer world.

For today’s Poetic Prose: Gather a list of all the things you believe in, whether it be in regard to yourself or to the outer world, write them down, and mold it into a poem. Send it to me at leanna.commins@gmail.com if you feel so inclined, but as always, keeping your art to yourself for yourself is and always will be good enough.

Intro Song: "Garden Walk" by D. Ray

Outro Song: “We All Try” by Frank Ocean (Nostalgia, Ultra, 2011)

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