J.P. Howard
Tanka for my Son During a Pandemic
Our teen wants to stay
safe inside our home each day
We shelter him in
Our home, the safest space now
We Mamas don’t push, just love
Haibun for Resilience during a Pandemic
we are writing our way through grief. we are finding new ways to be joyful. we are telling fear to have a back seat. some days we are scared and alone. we are never truly alone. we are only a phone call or a poem away from someone who loves us. we are love and loved and loving. we are breathing. we are alive and present. we are inhaling fear and exhaling calm. we are sad, but we are not letting our sadness define us. we are a quiet whisper at night. we are hush baby don’t you cry mamas in early morning hours. we are the shock of blue sky against a new york skyline.
we will come for you
we will bring our resilience
we will not give up
JP Howard is an educator, literary activist, curator and community builder. Her debut poetry collection, SAY/MIRROR, was a Lambda Literary finalist. She is also the author of bury your love poems here (Belladonna*) and co-editor of Sinister Wisdom Journal Black Lesbians–We Are the Revolution! JP has received fellowships from Cave Canem, VONA, Lambda Literary and Brooklyn Arts Council and curates Women Writers in Bloom Poetry Salon, a New York-based monthly literary series. Her poetry is widely anthologized. JP is the Editor-At-Large of Mom Egg Review VOX online. http://www.jp-howard.com