Weekend self-care open thread: Celebrating Black poets

As we say in this space: Black history is American history. Black America is America. And Black art is American art.

We are a week into Black History Month. Some of the usual suspects have had their usual meltdowns. They're churls and easily ignored.

Although music feeds my soul, it's poetry and literature which give me motive force. For this first weekend of Black History Month, we'll explore the first art, that of the word.

Why is poetry important? Of all the arts, poetry allows us to put words to our experience, with immediacy, with allusions, with depth. A poem can, in a few lines, delineate an existence. Gospel music is poetry. Poetry and the passing down of stories have been integral to all cultures, no less so for Black America. Poetry heals wounds by exposing them.

As always, be ever kind to yourselves and those around you.