poetry

We Are Part of Those Who Keep Wake

We will keep wake up until the boundaries of insomnia
We will not sleep
We will pluck out the eyes of drowsiness
We will pull the bed away from naive naps
We are part of those who keep wake

Our eyes rolled wide
Blushed by the challenge
Open to vigilance
We will walk in front of the fire to protect the flame of awakening

We will not close our eyes in honey nights’ sleep
We will not sleep like bellies sated with princely dishes
We will see through the fog
Beyond the …

by Macaire Etty |

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A Storm Like No Other

by Marie Ketline Adodo |

What storm is brewing
With the falling of dead stars
That lie along these alleys of sea foam?

Suicidal waves
Rise and crash
Into the throat of a gaping gulf
Which …

Hot Stepper at the Gates of Hell | Zocalo Public Square • Arizona State University • Smithsonian

Hot Stepper at the Gates of Hell

by Martin Egblewogbe |

 

who now pleads with the ancestors
seeing with naked eyes the gates of the dead

who now sees the impossibility of life
finding at last the answer to the question

and wonders …

How Does Culture Immigrate? | Zocalo Public Square • Arizona State University • Smithsonian

How Does Culture Immigrate?

Artists and Scholars Explore the Ways Their Work Helps Them Understand Homeland

by Talib Jabbar |

Home can be physical or imagined—a point of departure and return but also a memory or feeling. When migrants and immigrants move across borders, they bring along the places they …


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