The poems in this project were written within a 24‑hour period of each other and are presented in order of their appearance for the month of January 2024.
Written as a call and response to each other, the poems are at times direct responses in content and form, or a mediation on what the offering triggered in the other. Using poetry writing as a methodological engagement with the reflective and reflexive attributes of autoethnography, this project offers an examination of lived experience and will provide a critical expansion of poetic inquiry. An example of "collaborative spirit‑writing," this text uses a dialogical exchange of responsiveness, excavating the lived experiences of the two authors (a Black man and a Black woman) with complex intersectional identities. Using poetic writing as both form and function, this book provides a performance of remembrance and resistance.
Students and researchers working with qualitative inquiry and in areas from performative writing to Critical Race Studies will find this book a useful addition to their research. Teachers will also find this book facilitates pedagogies of engagement.
Table of Contents:
About the Authors
Series Editor Note
Introduction
Orienting Your Engagement
To the reader
To teachers
(What is it about January that invites reflection and contemplation?)
January 1, 2024 Mary
1. “A War by any other Name”
2. “First day of another year”
3. “Resolution, 1-1-2024”
4. “Home”
5. “Dea[R]th”
January 1, 2024 Bryant
1. “A War Name”
2. “First day After (His Death)”
3. “Resolution, #1”
4. “Re-defining Home (The Day After)”
5. “Death”
*********
January 2, 2024 Mary
1. “Choice”
2. “Second Day of Another Year”
3. “Prayer of Peace”
4. “Home must be, in me”
5. “Life (just) Disappears?”
January 2, 2024 Bryant
1. “Choices”
2. “Second Day After”
3. “Prayer Wall”
4. “Home is in me”
5. “Life Disappears”
*********
January 3, 2024 Mary
1. “Potty Training”
2. “Third Day of Another Year”
3. “Memory Mantle”
4. “One more Hug”
5. “Disappearing”
January 3, 2024 Bryant
1. “Training to Potty”
2. “Third Day After”
3. “Mantle of Memories”
4. “One more Hug, Please”
5. “Disappearances”
**********
January 4, 2024 Mary
1. “Another Word for Dog/Cat Lover”
2. “How Poetry Saves my Life”
3. “Academy Office Memory”
4. “Handshake vs. Hug”
Take Two: “My last Touch”
5. “Buried Breath”
January 4, 2024 Bryant
1. “Animal Lover”
Take Two: “Black Cat with a Black Cat”
2. “How Poetry Saved my Life”
3. “The Smell of Academy Offices”
4. “Hug vs. Handshake”
5. “Breaths Buried”
************
January 5, 2024 Mary
1. “Zoophilist”
2. “Trash Talk”
3. “Smells”
4. “All are welcome”
5. “Ashes”
January 5, 2024 Bryant
1. “Lover of Animals”
2. “Talking Trash”
3. “Smells”
4. “All are Welcome Here”
5. “Ashes”
**********
January 6, 2024 Mary
1. “To instill Responsibility”
2. “Take out the Trash”
3. “Aromas”
4. “Laugh”
5. “The Living”
January 6, 2024 Bryant
1. “Stilling responsibility”
2. “Taking away the Trash”
3. “Aromas”
4. “Laugh”
5. “The Living”
***********
January 7, 2024 Mary
1. Old Habits
2. “Recycling”
3. “Mendacity”
4. “Smile”
5. “The Living Room”
January 7, 2024 Bryant
1. “Old Habits”
2. “Recycling”
3. “Truth about mendacity”
4. “Smile”
5. “The Living Room”
********
January 8, 2024 Mary
1. “Slipping into Darkness”
2. “Who’s your Daddy?”
3. “Liar, Liar Pants on Fire”
4. “The Frown”
5. “The School’s Living Room”
January 8, 2024 Bryant
1. “Slippin’ into Darkness”
2. “Who’s your Daddy?”
3. “Liar, Liar Pants on Fire”
4. “The Frown”
5. “The School’s Living Room”
*********
January 9, 2024 Mary
1. “Darkness”
2. “Ham”
3. “On the Low-Low”
4. “Humming”
5. “Campus Living Rooms”
January 9, 2024 Bryant
1. “Darkness”
2. “Ham”
3. “On the Low-Low”
4. “Humming or Whistling”
5. “Campus Living Rooms”
**********
January 10, 2024 Mary
1. “The ability to only see Color”
2. “How family can disregard family”
3. “Choreography of Feelings”
4. “Whistling Girls”
5. “The shared company of Silence”
January 10, 2024 Bryant
1. “Seeing Red”
2. “Under-My-Hat”
3. “Choreography of Feelings”
4. “Whistling at Girls”
5. “The shared company of silence”
*********
January 11, 2024 Mary
1. “Red (Read)”
2. “Hat Trick”
3. “Unpopular”
4. “To much time with Books?”
5. “I am still in shock”
January 11, 2024 Bryant
1. “Red Purple Orange”
2. “Hat Trick”
3. “Unpopular”
4. “Too much time with Books?”
5. “I am still in shock”
************
January 12, 2024 Mary
1. “The color purple”
2. “It goes with everything”
3. “Birds of a feather flock together?”
4. “215 bodies found in unmarked graves in a [Jackson] Mississippi Jail”
5. “Haiku”
January 12, 2024 Bryant
1. “The color purple 2?”
2. “It goes with everything”
3. “Birds of a feather flock together?”
4. “215 bodies found in unmarked graves in a [Jackson] Mississippi Jail?”
5. “Haiku”
********
January 13, 2024 Mary
1. “I, too, am waiting”
2. “Grandpa’s Dance”
3. “The Birds”
4. “Jackson, Mississippi”
5. “Haiku”
January 13, 2024 Bryant
1. “I, too, am waiting”
2. “Grandpa Dancing”
3. “(For) The Birds”
4. “College Station, Texas”
5. “Responding to a Haiku”
*************
January 14, 2024 Mary
1. “Elvis the King?”
2. “Granny’s Kitchen”
3. “Animal Rebellion”
4. “Not a glass of Champagne”
5. “Snow Storm”
January 14, 2014 Bryant
1. “Crowning Kings and Queens”
2. “The Kitchen”
3. “Rebellion”
4. “Champagne or Thank You?”
5. “Snowstorms are the Norm”
**********
January 15, 2024 Mary
1. “The New King of England”
2. “The Kitchen”
3. “Not a Tea Party”
4. “Not the Norm”
5. “Connections”
January 15, 2024 Bryant
1. “King Day”
2. “The Kitchen Needs Cleaning”
3. “Not a Tea Party”
4. “Not Norm”
5. “On ‘Connections’”
**********
January 16, 2024 Mary
.
1. “Mis-Understanding”
2. “To Cut or Not to Cut?”
3. “Our Supreme Court”
4. “Standing in the Wake”
5. “Jamaica”
January 16, 2024 Bryant
1. “Race (Still) Matters”
2. “Cutting my Dreadlocks”
3. “Wanted: Affirmative Actions (Dead or Alive)”
4. “Tending to the Dead”
5. “You saved the best for last.”
***********
January 17, 2024 Mary
1. “Talk a Walk”
2. “Change of Mind”
3. “I wish this was a lie”
4. “Mama’s Hands”
5. “Seeing God in all Things”
January 17, 2024 Bryant
1. “tick a lock”
2. “I can ‘not’ choose to mourn”
3. “I wish this was a lie.”
4. “Praying Hands”
5. “God in all things”
*************
January 18, 2024 Mary
1. “The Lock of Silence”
2. “Professional Joy”
3. “Beloved?”
4. “Praying Hands”
5. “People I don’t Like”
January 18, 2024 Bryant
1. “I carried that with me”
2. “Professional Joyfulness”
3. “Dearly Beloved”
4. “Praying for Peace”
5. “This is best for both of us”
************
January 19, 2024 Mary
1. “A Nation of Euphemisms”
2. “Self-Love and Purpose”
3. “Who is sitting at the Table?”
4. “Bended Knees”
5. “Grace”
January 19, 2024 Bryant
1. “Euphemismistically Speaking”
2. “Purpose of Self-Love”
3. “Sitting at the Table”
4. “Knee”
5. “Grace, the girl”
********
January 20, 2024 Mary
1. “Regret Sex?”
2. “Love yourself into Being”
3. “Franklin, First Black Comic Character in “Peanuts”
4. “Amputation”
5. “When only a Cuss Word Works”
January 20, 2024 Bryant
1. “Repentant”
2. “Loving into Being”
3. “Seeing the possibility of you”
4. “The Amputated Itch”
5. “The word, “Bitch”
*********
January 21, 2024 Mary
1. “Religion as a Tool for Power”
2. “The First Black Woman President of Harvard”
3. “Seeing What’s Possible”
4. “Breast Cancer”
5. “The Sopranos”
January 21, 2024 Bryant
1. “Tools of Prayer”
2. “The First”
3. “My insides smile”
4. “Magical Bosoms”
5. “The N-Word”
***********
January 22, 2024 Mary
1. “God’s Will”
2. “The Second, third, fourth, fifth”
3. “Inside Work”
4. “Small Breast-ed”
5. “The N-Word?”
January 22, 2024 Bryant
1. “Whose Will Be Done?”
2. “Yes, I/we know how amazing she is”
3. “The Ubiquity of Me”
4. “A Breast-ed Experience”
5. “The N-Word, Nice?”
*************
January 23, 2024 Mary
1. “Will to be Free”
2. “How Long, How Long?”
3. “Note to Michelle Obama”
4. “Incontinence”
5. “The Nice Word”
January 23, 2024 Bryant
1. “Realizing I Am, Somebody”
2. “Questioning possibility towards potentiality”
3. “A Black Girl in the White House”
4. “Incontinence in Men”
5. “Nice words?”
**********
January 24, 2024 Mary
1. “I AM A MAN”
2. “What if we had stayed Together?”
3. “That was Poetry”
4. “I would do that Commercial”
5. “People say the damnedest things”
January 24, 2024 Bryant
1. “Black Lives Matter”
2. “Black Wall Street in Tulsa, OK Destroyed on 6/1/1921”
3. “Watching and Witnessing”
4. “no place for shame.”
5. “People DO the Darnedest Things”
********
January 25, 2024 Mary
1. “Haiku”
2. “Sick and Tired”
3. On November 4th 2008
4. “The times of our Lives”
5. “Black Girl/No Magic”
January 25, 2024 Bryant
1. “The Matter of Black Lives”
2. “Remaining Black and living in America”
3. “Dream List”
4. “Born Right on Time”
5. “Black Magic: But it Never Occurred to Me”
**********
January 26, 2024 Mary
1. “BIPOC?”
2. “An Activist Affect or Where the Rest a-ya’ll at?”
3. “Living Past 16”
4. “Taking Advantage of the Moment”
5. “Never Full”
January 26, 2024 Bryant
1. “Opposite of White”
2. “Escape to Freedom”
3. “to the back of his head”
4. “Taking a Moment”
5. “red skin baloney”
***********
January 27, 2024 Mary
1. “The Opposite of White”
2. “Necessary Action”
3. “Meeting a friend at the Park”
4. “Taking a Moment”
5. “Local Butcher Store”
January 27, 2024 Bryant
1. “Shades of Desire”
2. “Action Necessary”
3. “A desire to stay young?”
4. “a moment is”
5. “little burned off the center”
***********
January 28, 2024 Mary
1. “Haiku”
2. “The Golden Rule?”
3. “Dead by 30”
4. “Point of Reflection”
5. “The Beginning of a Poem I wrote at 17”
January 28, 2024 Bryant
1. “Black Don’t Crack”
2. “Changing the world.”
3. “Imagined-Purpose”
4. “The Reflection Point”
5. “the King is dead”
************
January 29, 2024 Mary
1. “A single Crack”
2. “Hold on to Love?”
3. “Give Life a Chance”
4. “I’m not what I look like”
5. “They kille[ed] King to Stop a Movement”
January 29, 2024 Bryant
1. “Like a Black Panther Suit”
2. “Those are the times . . .”
3. “Then what is the point?”
4. “I’m not what I look like--either”
5. “Bodies on the line”
***********
January 30, 2024 Mary
1. “Chadwick Boseman”
2. “I pause to Learn”
3. “Words help me”
4. “The White Imagination”
5. “Bod[ies] on the Line”
January 30, 2024 Bryant
1. “Chance or Choice”
2. “Never Enough”
3. “First Response”
4. “Little to no time”
5. “Carrying it around”
************
January 31, 2024 Mary
1. “The Future”
2. “The old people know our Hearts”
3. “Soul and Spirit?”
4. “The presumption of their self-value”
5. “Different Countr(ies)”
January 31, 2024 Bryant
1. “Tomorrow is the Future”
2. “Talking to grandma”
3. “Somethin’ in my Spirit?”
4. “Tripping Poetically”
5. “The Last Day”
Closing Reflections: “What is it about January?” Alexander and Weems
Study Questions, Prompts, and Probes for Students Alexander
Questions, Prompts, and Probes for the Researcher Alexander
How to Use this Book to Readers: Embodied Engagement Weems
How to Use this Book to Teachers: Embodied Engagement Weems
Endnotes
Further Readings Alexander and Weems
