ABSTRACT
In this series of poems, the author seeks to illuminate the day-to-day realities of navigating Black motherhood juxtaposed against the terror that infiltrates the tenderness of loving and raising Black children. Utilizing autobiographical, generated, long-form, haiku, and free verse techniques the poet’s intent is to amplify the banal aspects of mothering against the backdrop of the omnipresent fear of knowing one misstep could result in the murder of your children. How does a Black mother move away from paralysis with this knowledge and lean into wholly expressing her voice, identity, and general human being-ness? The author asserts that in the lacing of words together into lines, ropes, tethers, to create buoyancy for others to hang on to, poetry offers life to Black mothers, even in the face of so much dying.
