Sonia Sanchez, A Love Letter — To The Poet Who Taught Me To Find My Voice

Dear Ms. Sonia Sanchez,

By the time I sat in a crowded room in c and heard you recite one of your majestic poems, your magic had already pulled me in. 

Your poetry taught me early that poems are strong enough to hold our humanity, our fears, and our hope, carried in a cadence flexible enough that we can break it and then rebuild it. It’s a rhythm I’d reach for when I started writing poetry.

As a teenager tumbling through the foster care system in California, I had embraced poetry as my favorite form of written expression. Dr. Thema Bryant once said that one of the great powers of poetry is that it enables you to write in code and share as much or as little as you want and still give voice to the unspeakable. She nailed why I chose poetry over any other form of writing. 

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