Kept out of,
kept in,
kept from,
kept behind,
kept below,
kept down.
Kept without life.
Some were asked to walk a fraction of our exclusion for a year and it almost destroyed all they thought they were.
Yet here we are. Still Walking. Still kept.
To be kept to the edges of existence is the inheritance of the marginalized.
We might not be fully sure of all that we are. & yet we have endured all that we were.
To love one another just may be the fight of our lives.
Poetry and language are often at the heartbeat of movements for change.
In this truth, in this faith, we trust.
For while we have our eyes on the future,
History has its eyes on us.
Change is made of choices, & choices are made of character.
Always remember that
What happened to us
Happened through us.
Please.
Do not ask us who we are.
The hardest part of grief
Is giving it a name.
What’s really funny about being National Youth Poet Laureate is that not everyone even knows it exists.
The oration of poetry, I consider to be its own art form and tradition.
The great responsibility I feel is to get people to put that power and that hope in themselves.
Poetry has never been the language of barriers, it’s always been the language of bridges.
I was writing since I can remember – I just didn’t know it was poetry yet, or that writing could be a career.
Our scars are the brightest parts of us.
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and then