Connecting Through Poetry One Line at a Time

We were happy to celebrate National Poetry Month again in the community! This time we were at Solid State Books on H Street in D.C., a Black-owned bookstore.

We got the event started with an opening activity using our Intention Words. We wrote poems following an “I Am” template and included an Intention Word we picked. This led to us discussing reclaiming our worth, tapping into our creative and curious side when balancing other obligations, being okay with starting new seasons, removing people and things that no longer serve us, and more.

After the discussions from the first activity, it was time for our second activity, which was based on our self-care activity card, #45 Follow a Trail of Words. This activity is about picking random words from books to help uncover a personal message and self reflect, which is perfect to do at a bookstore.

Each of us selected a poetry book to pick out three random words. One woman used her poetry book, “Life after Pain,” she wrote as part of her healing journey, for the activity. She picked out “Cry,” “Recovery,” and “Release,” and spoke on overcoming the fear she experienced from people and rediscovering who she is. We also discussed the importance of taking time to pause and evaluate as part of the healing journey. These activities led to meaningful conversations and affirmed how powerful the art of poetry can be.

We thank everyone who joined us for this meetup. These meetups always reminds us how poetry can be used to connect us in a beautiful, authentic way.  A special thanks goes to Solid State Books for being so gracious in opening your space for us to connect, feel safe, and be heard.