Monica Sok
Dear loom, dear box skeleton,
special ordered and
handcrafted from wood,
you rest on the floor
and wait for her
to sit down with you
and together weave
fabrics for weddings
between lovers and warriors,
the survivors, surviving.
Your sturdy frame
animates her as living
portrait, simple as the chain
on her glasses, the calm focus:
steady hands on the shuttle,
the weft and the warp,
feet on the treadle.
You obey the soft sheen
of turquoise, cherry, and gold
wrapped at the body's waist,
your gift to the body,
hundreds of bodies for the new year,
for the blessings of ancestors.
Sweet loom, old friend of an old woman,
you are an ancestor she prays to,
so that when her hair falls
not as rain does
but as nails the evening hangs on,
and her hands slip no longer
from silk but on walls in the dark
hall to her room,
her daughters will sadly dismantle you,
remnant of a lost home, sacred language,
coded inside her native language.
When she passes,
you will be stowed away
in the basement.
You will remind us of her,
you, loom, who have kept her company,
nonjudgmental witness to her secrets.
You will remember best
the way she works, the spots on her legs,
her bare toes peeking
from the edge of her sarong,
the slow motion of her hand
slapping flies in summertime
or the sound of gorges rushed
from her face in the quiet hours of the cloth
when she was depressed, she was depressed—
she pressed against you daily and wept.
from the book A NAIL THE EVENING HANGS ON / Copper Canyon Press
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Color headshot of Ruth Weiss with teal-colored hair
Ruth Weiss, Trailblazing Beat Poet, Dies at 92

"Until the arrival of Diane di Prima in the late 1960s, Weiss was often the only woman on the North Beach circuit, and she was the first Beat poet, man or woman, to read to the accompaniment of live jazz, according to Jerry Cimino, Beat historian and founder of the Beat Museum in North Beach."
 
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Resources for Supporting and Uplifting the Black Community

The Loveland Foundation: "The Loveland Foundation was established in 2018 by Rachel Cargle in response to her widely successful birthday wish fundraiser, Therapy for Black Women and Girls. Her enthusiastic social media community raised over $250,000, which made it possible for Black women and girls nationally to receive therapy support. Black women and girls deserve access to healing, and that healing will impact generations."

The Audre Lord Project: "The Audre Lorde Project is a Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Two Spirit, Trans and Gender Non Conforming People of Color center for community organizing, focusing on the New York City area. Through mobilization, education and capacity-building, we work for community wellness and progressive social and economic justice. Committed to struggling across differences, we seek to responsibly reflect, represent and serve our various communities."

Higher Heights: "Higher Heights is the political home for Black women and our allies to unleash our collective organizing power from the voting booth to elected office. Together we are lifting our voices, votes and leadership to push for a democracy that looks like us and represents us." 
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Poetry Daily stands with the Black community. 
We oppose racism, oppression, and police brutality.
We will continue to amplify diverse voices in the poetry world.
Black Lives Matter.
What Sparks Poetry:
Sandra Lim on “Black Box”

"Mysteriously, the speaker and the friend, and you and I, might become one mind in the poem; we could intuit something illegible but true, together. The energy of our consciousness is trying to make itself known by and against the energy of everything incomprehensible outside it."
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