The Academy of American Poets

Look back only for as long as you must, Then go forward into the history you will make. Alberto Ríos

She pleads for respite,she will come ere long When, resting by the roadside, she is strong. Emma Lazarus

Darkly I gaze into the days ahead, And see her might and granite wonders there, Beneath the touch of Time’s unerring hand, Like priceless treasures sinking in the sand.... Claude McKay

You are in the black car burning beneath the highway And rising above itnot as smoke But what causes it to rise. Hey, Black Child, You are the fire at the end of your elders’... Weeping, Roger Reeves

We were running out of breath, as we ran out to meet ourselves. We Were surfacing the edge of our ancestors’ fights, and ready to Strike. Joy Harjo

Late cranes with heavy wing, and lazy flight, Sail up the silence with the nearing night Emily Pauline Johnson #PoemADay ... https://poets.org/poem/marshlands

I pick you up & you are a child made of longing clasped to my neck. Iridescent, lovely, your inestimable tantrums, I carry you back & forth... from the famine in your mind. Rachel Eliza Griffiths

Leaving behind nights of terror and fear I rise Into a daybreak that’s wondrously clear I rise Bringing the gifts that my ancestors gave,... I am the dream and the hope of the slave. I rise I rise I rise. Maya Angelou

Life is short and the world is at least half terrible, and for every kind stranger, there is one who would break you, though I keep this from my children. I am trying to sell them the world.... Maggie Smith

"I am interested in the various connections between the individual and what we gather under the umbrella term ‘collective.’" Roy G. Guzmán #AboutThisPoem ... https://poets.org/poem/excerpt-age-aquarius

For we the people will always be arriving a ceremony of thunder waking up the earth opening our eyes to human monuments.... And it'll get better it'll get better Sonia Sanchez

Fear rustles mantras out of my body. I have risked a motherland. Roy G. Guzmán #PoemADay ... https://poets.org/poem/excerpt-age-aquarius

Hold me, closeness says. As long as I have sight, I’ll see. Mary Jo Bang #ShelterinPoems ... https://poets.org/poem/how-will-it-feel-months-now

Check out HOME: A Poetry Reading and Open Mic Series led by Boston Poet Laureate and 2020 Academy of American Poets Laureate Fellow Porsha Rashidaat J. Olayiwola. This virtual series running from November 2020 through June 2021 will feature former Boston Poet Laureate Danielle Legros Georges, Xandria Phillips, Chase Berggrun, Rachel McKibbens, Monica Sok, Krysten Hill, Martín Espada, and Rajiv Mohabir. Learn more: https://www.boston.gov//home-poetry-reading-and-open-mic-s