late haiku

It’s past 2am, so officially I missed a day in my haiku challenge…just got home from MA; I’m not usually there on Wednesday, but two of my students organized a special event to honor the first black woman to graduate from Mt Holyoke in 1883: Hortense Parker.  The guest speaker was none other than Barbara Smith, a hero of mine–co-founder of Kitchen Table Press AND the Combahee River Collective; I just taught their “Statement” last week, and it remains one of the most important texts I’ve ever read.  It was the first time I saw in print these words: “black women are inherently valuable.”  So here’s my 2am haiku…

I aspire to write

something someday as potent

as Barbara’s “Statement”