Incantations For Rest: Poems, Meditations, and Other Magic - Softcover

Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

Atena O. Danner is an unapologetically Black time-traveling poet-activist who dwells in the past to survive the future. She writes toward Beloved Community, Black liberation, and collective imagination. Atena lives near the traditional homelands of the people of the Council of Three Fires and of the Menominee, Miami, and Ho-Chunk nations with her partner, pets, and two free Black children.

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Ancestors of the Page and the Call

Elders of the Message—

not quiet, not easy, not waiting another moment

Ntozake, Toni, Octavia, Pauli,

Zora, June, Gwendolyn, my mother (not an ancestor,

but a lit fuse . . .)

To my Ancestors and Elders: I honor you all!

My mother spoke to me in your language, so I would

be ready for this religion.

I take up the mantle

and bear the reverberations—the power! It shakes me!

I plant my feet . . .

Ntozake did not come for your comfort: none of y’all.

Mother Morrison did not come to suffer fools.

Octavia E. has an omen for you

Did you think Reverend Dr. Murray would let you off

the hook?

Zora gave less of what the world wanted

and more of what we needed: what needed to be said.

June said it plain and simply undeniable.

Gwendolyn’s quiet pace dogs your steps and keeps

coming and coming and coming . . .

The moment I touch the page, I’m howling the throughline,

tasting

the blood and joy.