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In honor of James Baldwin's Birthday
Here are some poems I wrote based on some of his more famous quotes
“Not everything that is faced can be changed,
but nothing can be changed until it is faced.”
— James Baldwin
James Baldwin on this your Birthday
Help us face all the wrongs in this world
The wrongs of today which mirror the wrongs of your time
Isms and phobias
War and violence and hate and harm
Starvation and genocide and terror
James Baldwin on this your Birthday
Help us face all the wrongs in this world
The wrongs of today which mirror the wrongs of your time
Anything and everything that keeps others
From knowing they are loved, beloved
From knowing they are worthy of being alive
James Baldwin on this your Birthday
Help us face all the wrongs in this world
The wrongs of today which mirror the wrongs of your time
Help us face all our global wrongs
Help us face all our national wrongs
Help us face all of our personal wrongs
So we yet have a hope of changing
“You think your pain and your heartbreak are unprecedented in the history of the world, but then you read. It was books that taught me that the things that tormented me most were the very things that connected me with all the people who were alive, who had ever been alive.”
— James Baldwin
Books and stories and epic tales
Characters and parasocial support networks
These have always been what tell me I am not alone
Even when I did not have the words
They understood what I was experiencing
They were always there to hold space for me
They were always there to listen
They were always there to grab my hand
And say run
Or give me a big hug
Depending on the need
They were always there
To help explain other people to me
To help explain me to myself
To be there to dance with queerness
To be there to dance with mental health struggles
To be there to dance with neurodivergence
Books and stories and epic tales
Characters and parasocial support networks
These will always be who tell me I am not alone
They will always be there to hold space for me
“An identity would seem to be arrived at by the way
in which the person faces and uses his experience.”
— James Baldwin
What is my identity?
A complicated question?
I feel like I have worn enough faces/enough masks
To leave all the Doctors in the stardust? Timedust?
From stardust and starlight we come
To stardust and starlight we go
What is my identity?
Aromantic and Asexual?
Neurodivergent?
Reader?
Writer?
Poet?
Daydreamer?
Cat sitter?
Legend of Tomorrow?
Human?
What is my identity?
A complicated question?
From stardust and starlight I come
To stardust and starlight I go
Yet I do not know what the journey may look like
Yet I do not know what adventures will appear
What identity do my experience add up to?
What is my identity?
