This was a project for my Children’s Literature class! We had to make a poem of our choice look attractive to children.
This is Not a Small Voice
by Sonia Sanchez
This is not a small voice
you hear this is a large
voice coming out of these cities.
This is the voice of LaTanya.
Kadesha. Shaniqua. This
is the voice of Antoine.
Darryl. Shaquille.
Running over waters
navigating the hallways
of our schools spilling out
on the corners of our cities and
no epitaphs spill out of their river mouths.
This is not a small love
you hear this is a large
love, a passion for kissing learning
on its face.
This is a love that crowns the feet with hands
that nourishes, conceives, feels the water sails
mends the children,
folds them inside our history where they
toast more than the flesh
where they suck the bones of the alphabet
and spit out closed vowels.
This is a love colored with iron and lace.
This is a love initialed Black Genius.
This is not a small voice
you hear.
Paige Tufford
April 26, 2021 — 1:00 pm
This is amazing! Powerful and touching.
Zoe Barber
May 6, 2021 — 11:52 am
I love your use of specific names in order to give the viewer that chance to put themselves in those names and to make them understand that their single voice is incredibly powerful! That message is a motif and is incredibly powerful! I love your use of words in the poem, for instance I liked the lines, “…where they suck the bones of the alphabet and spit out closed vowels”. This poem is short, but has a lasting impact after reading it! Impressive work!