Chatter

Falsely accused. Arrested. Not given a fair trial. Beaten. Condemned. Executed. This echoes too many stories of black people in this country. It echoes the story of a man who died on calvary over 2000 years ago. We have a collective history of violence. Our black bodies have been beaten and bruised since our arrival in this country. We have endured hardships and deliberate experimentation. We have been ostracized and sterilized. We have been sold promises of an unrealized American Dream. How many bodies must be stacked up in this nightmare on our street? So. We wake up and take to the streets in protest only to attest to rubber bullets fired in our direction. Tear gas choking us out. We can't breathe. You're on our necks like nooses from Southern trees. We will never have enough degrees cause we've never been given room...from the bottom decks of slave ships to concrete jungles in the sky to boardrooms. We've been groomed to grow roses in concrete. We learned to survive in gentrified neighborhoods that used to be our Black Wall Street. Everything we have...has been appropriated. We've always been on the frontlines. We were the calvary, infantry, and the air force. We understand excessive force oh too well. We've been hunted in Georgia since Antebellum days. We've nursed your babies and raised products of rape. Our blood turned Georgia clay Red. America has always redlined us with red tape. Outlined our bodies with chalk then gawk at us when we say black lives matter as if another name isn't added to the list from police radio chatter.

Be Phenomenal

There are two Maya Angelou poems that stick out from my chidhood, "And Still I Rise" and "Phenomenal Woman." I know that when I read those words, I believed her. I knew the "Pulse of the Morning," and why the caged bird sings. Maya's words made me think that I could be more than my circumstances. She made me love my big lips. She made me celebrate my queendom, I had yet to discover. She taught me that I was a phenom. Sometimes, we need to be reminded that we are phenomenal. We are wives. We are mothers. We are teachers. We are friends. We are encouragers. We are nurturers. We are phenomenal women. Fix your crown, sis! Be phenomenal!

Delight

"A poem begins in delight and ends in wisdom."-Robert Frost

I am a poet at heart. Words are my personal delight. For some, delight comes in the form of cupcakes or ice cream. It may be a Sunday Funday or just watching some good old fashioned football. Whatever makes you happy, make sure you take the time to enjoy it. Make someone laugh. Relish in their laughter. Enjoy all of life's delights.  

Contribution

I sat in church yesterday and listened to the guest speaker, Sam Collier say, "there's a difference between a moment and a movement." He spoke about the conversion of Paul being a moment that led to a movement. I began to think about all the moments in my life that could have led to a movement. I thought about the moments when fear and doubt paralyzed me. Then, I thought about all the times I moved. I thought about all the times I finished. I finished starting the business. I threw that show. I wrote those books. I sold those t-shirts. I made those cards. I wrote those poems. Those are my contributions. Those are my movements. It's easy to focus on what you didn't do, but what have you finished? What did you accomplish? What's your contribution? Maybe it's that little boy or little girl you are raising. Maybe it's that overtime you are putting in at your job. Maybe it's those ideas that are keeping you up at night. Whatever it is, you have something the world needs.

Love Works

I facilitated a Lunch and Learn series at my old job based on the book, "Love Works: Seven Timeless Principles for Effective Leadership" by Joel Manby. The principles in this book are based on the biblical principles of love discussed in 1 Corinthians: patience, kindness, trust, unselfishness, truth, forgiveness, and dedication. For eight weeks, we discussed and brainstormed strategies on how to improve the workplace and implement the principles of Love Works. Each week, it became clearer that I worked in a toxic environment with ineffective leadership that had no desire to let love work. How many of us work and live in toxic environments? How many of us refuse to let love work because of fear? I learned that Love Works when you let it. Love Works when you are willing to do the work. Love Works when you let go of fear and doubt and insecurity. Love works when you trust. Love works when you believe that love truly does cover a multitude of sins. Love works when you let love conquer all.

Words

I've always had a love affair with words. I started writing poetry in elementary school and eventually found myself reciting poems at spoken word venues in New Orleans and Atlanta. I loved to write, to listen, and to hear words. I learned that my words had power. I learned that I could speak and people would listen. I could write and people would read. I learned that my words had weight. I learned that I could inflict pain with my words. I could inspire with my words. I could condemn with my words. Proverbs says, "death and life are in the power of the tongue." Are you speaking life or are you speaking death? Use your words. They have power. 

I’ve been in love with these words for some time

learned how to make them mine

and not get caught up in titles, cause they never really define

what’s between the lines

I learned that time heals all wounds

And hurt don’t heal soon,

So, I’m taking my time

When it comes to composing our rhyme scheme

Finding out what maturity means

Cause I’ve seen

what life is like without me and these words

without me and these verbs

without me being heard

clearly, its bigger than me

I stopped writing poetry

When it started writing me

Defining me, literally

putting my mind’s imagery

into stanzas and verses I’ve only heard mentally

It’s like my heart got a pen

And it won’t stop writing

These words ….

-Khia Stone