Sonia Sanchez (1)Besprekingen

“Small miracles”

Beautiful tributes to prominent Black artists and activists

For over six decades, Sonia Sanchez has been a fiercely powerful -- and empowering -- voice for all of us, and for people of color in particular. Her contributions as a writer, an educator, and an activist have been invaluable. Gathering highlights from all of Ms. Sanchez's poetry, this compilation is sure to inspire love and community engagement.

Totally not an interesting or good for me.

Using the term haiku for phrase snippets and then stringing 15 together to make a poem - why call it haiku? Haiku get their strength from their form - not from twisting it.

Morning Haiku is a slim collection of haiku compositions, most of which celebrate the lives and mourn the deaths of prominent African-American musicians, singers, writers, and activists. My favorite poem is 10 haiku (for Philadelphia Murals), which pays tribute to the murals created through the Philadelphia Mural Arts Program.

Morning Haiku is a gentle and evocative collection of poems, one that I'll return to repeatedly for greater enjoyment and appreciation.½

Ms Sanchez is an African-American poet and playwright, who was a distinguished professor of English at Temple University in Philadelphia. Does Your House Have Lions?, which was nominated for both the National Book Critics’ Circle Award and the NAACP Image Award in 1997, is an epic poem in memory of Ms Sanchez's brother, who died of AIDS in the 1980s. It consists of short, electric bursts of anger, bitterness, fear, and ultimately love and reconciliation, from the voices of Ms Sanchez, her brother, their father, and his stepmother, along with the voices of African ancestors. My only regret is not hearing Ms Sanchez read this poem; if anyone is familiar with this book and knows of a performance or audio book of it, please let me know!½

I've read a few of Sanchez' poems, but this is the only book of hers I own. I read it on the train and brush back tears.