Poem: “I AM”I AM by Latorial Faison

(from 28 Days of Poetry Celebrating Black History Volume 2)

I am somebody on my way somewhere

I am she who interrogates those who stare

I am too much for this wayward world to digest

With pen and paper, I paint pictures with frankness

I am the pages, I am the pens

What whiteness begins, my blackness ends

I am the black man’s rage, the black woman’s stage

If you care to recognize, just turn the page

I am the journey, the memory of yesterdays

I am the surprising result of evil ways

I am Jesus Christ crucified,

They hang me high and stretch me wide

I am the ears that hear the cries of the deaf

I am fingers picking up those pieces left

I am the hands that write the words

I am the prophet you’ve never heard

I am the music that bears the beat

I am the stranded enduring the heat

I am the parent who lives with the shame

Of children who step outside the family name

I am the rape victim turned inside out

I am the child abused who cannot shout

I am black America’s complex

I am white America’s “What’s next?”

I am Dr. King’s Dream,

I am Malcolm Xs extreme

I am the Catholic Pope’s next big issue

For every child politics leaves behind, I am the tissue

I am the dream dared, the broken repaired

I am the truth challenged, the minority compared

I am the arrival of hope, the departure of pain

the explanation of turmoil, sanity for the insane

I am somebody on my way somewhere

I am she who interrogates those who stare

I am too much for this wayward world to digest

With pen and paper, I paint pictures with frankness

Bio: Latorial Faison is a poet, author, educator and native of Virginia. She has written four books of poetry: 28 Days of Poetry Celebrating Black History Volumes I and II, Secrets of My Soul, and Immaculate Perceptions. In addition, Faison’s poetry and nonfiction writing has been featured in various social initiatives and literary publications all over the United States and abroad. Latorial is a graduate of the University of Virginia and VA TECH. She spends a great deal of time teaching poetry in schools and spreading awareness through poetry in her community. Faison’s poetry has been compared to that of Langston Hughes, Maya Angelou, and the profound Angela Davis as she strives to poetically speak through literary verse on social and political issues of the times. Faison resides on Ft. Lee in Virginia with her husband and three sons.

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