When I was
Called from
Eternity–
I was
Baptized by water
Then, fire.
-JBHarris, July 2022
Tag: Poetry Matters
Ghosts In The Talking Boards
Be content the great cloud of witnesses say.
All the mammies
Are dead
But they still speak
Reaching from ancestor
Planes, with burns
On their backs,
Limps, unwhole missing
Skin, Teeth and Limb
From the word no.
It is their strength
To survive they
Provide, while warning
Us of what it
Cost them to
say no–
And yes is better.
Yes to your will
Yes to your way
Yessa…Massa.
Warning us in dreams
Of the 2 faces of this
Life–peace and war.
Yet we war for peace,
And for our peace those
Who value nothing
War for everything!
Be danger of your
Fire because they
Liable to beat it outcha!
Cool yuh in the dark
Of the earth
Or make you new
Branches in juniper trees
Just do what they ask ya
Like they ask,
Yessuh, juss like that
Not everyone can
Run–
But not everyone
Can stay!
They died for our bravery
Bc no greater love
Has no man than this
To lay down his life
For his life for his friends–
Those whom
are alive and remain
And remain to be alive…
This bridge called
My back remembers
The lash,
And feet made flat
To go through grass
And swamp
As eyes water as the
Last memory held
Is being told not
To leave.
We have counted
The cost of fire
And bravery and
Bending the tongue
Of owners and masters
With the lips given
By The Word.
If He is always speaking–
Then so will we.
So will I.
-JBHarris, July 2022
NEW BOOK-Next Lifetime Things
Grab a copy on Amazon! The Kindle version is coming!
One of my favorite songs is, and may always be, Next Lifetime.
There is a honesty to this song, a wondering, and a realizing that while life is changing–so are you.
This collection of poetry was written about a year ago, and started with the work Reflections From A Back Porch Swing. This poetry collection tells of how my own body is aging and betraying me at points. I talk about the new relationship I accidentally fell into, and even the shifting nature of motherhood now.
Everything is happening, and I am in the everything! In this shifting levels of amazing, there is a peace I have found in these pieces. There is more of me in this work, as a realized, happy 41-year-old woman, than I ever had before.
This lifetime, this lifetime and next lifetime, is amazing!
National Poetry Month-2022
This will be the third year of doing this, and I get hype every year for it!
The work this year may be a little different, some published some not. There will also be the bonus of some work on my writer focused TikTok page: @shesgottapen2.5.
30 pieces here. 30 pieces there. Whew!
This year will be more intimate than the proceeding years. So much more has happened in the world, to me, and happening within me as I age.
All work can be found on Amazon by searching me as: Jennifer Bush-Harris and Jennifer P. Harris.
This will be most amazing, and I am here for it.
Here goes everything and Enjoy!
With Love & Ink,
JBHarris
Godmothers
I will summon
The queens of my blood
And the Father who made
Them strong—
And I will not fail.
-JBHarris, December 2021
Mood Forever: #IAmABlackWriter
Language is legacy.” -JBHarris
This is my mood forever.
My call, my job, my power, as a writer—a writer whom is Black—is to create in a place that does not wish to see me. Does not wish to see me rise, and thrives on me defaulting.
I will not be robbed of my pen, my power, because the mediocrity of whiteness cannot suffer the power and color blackness provides. I do not need whiteness to confirm my blackness!
I need my blackness to be seen just as readily, with just as much ease as whiteness. I will not bow to be seen by what is determined to erase me.
Thoughts In A Mirror
For my diaspora family, and all of us of the 6th region. Home for us is a dream…and reality.
I want to go home to my mother
in the land with my fathers rules benevolent
in lands that were wide and gold..
I want to go home where the sun
is a shade of black
I want to go home to
my cousins and my aunts
Uncles, my nieces and nephews
lost the time and chance and I want to embrace them
as only family can
So they can see their cousin
Their niece their daughter
from long across the sea
Through time magic
And will
has come home —
changed and weathered, yes
but home
and I am afraid the when
my feet touch shores that my grandparents
were stolen
from that they may not
know who I am
-JBHarris, 9.18.21
Black Women Aren’t Coming
*Written in response to White women demanding solidarity with this abortion issue (the Heartbeat Bill) in Texas in September 2021. This is dedicated to all the Black women whom keep saving the world from people determined to not have us (Black women) move in it. -JBH
Black women aren’t coming.
No heat, no fire, no smoke.
Black women aren’t coming.
No cavalry, no drumming, no singing.
Nothing.
Black women aren’t coming.
The Queens will send no soliders,
Their sons will not die, or be blamed.
The far off Kings from time and lands
Will not bend to your tears.
Black women aren’t coming.
The clouds have broken.
The rain has stropped,
And our feet are still.
Our backs are turned,
Our shoulders are square,
Mouths silent.
We are walking…away.
There is no reason for us to come.
There is nothing to do.
BLACK WOMEN ARE NOT COMING.
-JBHarris, 9.9.2021
‘Black Widow’ Versus The World-Part 1: Meanings & Themes
Warning: This will contain spoilers.
Also, this series is dedicated to my best friend, Marissa–who’s nickname is Romanov.
I finally was able to watch Black Widow this week. I am glad of this, though. I was able to watch it alone, with all my girlhood, womanhood and writer self all in the same room. In watching Infinity War: Endgame, I (like every other MCU fan) was horrified at the loss of Natasha, rather than Clint, to get the Soul Stone.
Yes, I still feel away about this. But, let’s go on.
I have daughters whom are dedicated Marvel fans, and they were born during Phase 3! So, seeing–knowing!–that Natasha ‘Nat’ Romanov was getting her own movie–and Scarlett Johanssen was going to have Executive Producer credit? With a female director? For a Marvel movie? Oh, yes! Game changing! There is definitely a distinct difference when a woman directs a movie and when a man does. But, this? Oh, but this. Here are some of my take aways–and things that you might not have paid attention to.
1.) The rampant nature of the abuse of women and girls. All through the movie, we see just how easy it is to hurt women and girls. When Nat and Yelena run from the small force of Widows who come for them, one falls off the roof and breaks her tibia. She is told by the Red Room to terminate (kill herself). Though Nat tries to help, her free will has been hijacked. This also speaks to how suicide is till a problem among women, and how we can somehow feel as if no one can help us.
2.) Black women and girls are often the victims of human trafficking. Although the African-American/Widows whom are Black don’t have dominant screen time, but it points to just how easy it is to erase Black women and girls–and how no one looks for us, if they don’t look for us. There is also the creepy and telling line that Drestov says regarding how the world has too many girls, inferring they (read: we) are a wasted resource. Throwaways. Natasha hints to this as well as she confronts him before destroying the Red Room.
3.) Sexualizing of young women and girls. If you have watched the evolution of Black Widow’s outfits through the Avengers movies, you will notice just how her costume changed. How cleavage, and her figure were emphasized. I This movie, the uniforms at it were, are form-fitting, yes–but they are not overtly sexual.
4.) How we (the world) expects girls be self-sacrificing. From the first time Natasha kicks the gun out of the soldier’s hand to protect Yelena, Yelena blowing up the engine on the plane, we see that girls are ornamental, only being functional for a common goal or end. The theme of personhood, freedom, free will and the ownership of self are woven throughout the movie.
5.) We teach girls that pain is what strengthens them. Melina tells Natasha, “Don’t let them take your heart.” This is one of those sayings that I believe encourages girls to stay in tune with their emotions–they make you human. In the run of Black Widow through Phase 3, we do not see Natasha breakdown. We do not see her unravel! The last tears (or first tears) we see of Natasha was when she was crying in this mix of fear, rage and disbelief if was around her sister, Yelena. In becoming a woman, there are outrageous things that will happen to girls and in order to cope–we shut off.
We detach. We stuff down. We shift. We lie. We hide. We run. We self-destruct!
Melina’s reminder, even from this staged motherhood, is a reminder that shutting off never works–and should never been the long-term solution.
6.) Trauma bonding. “I cycled through the Red Room four times before you were born. Those walls are all I know.” When Alexei, Yelena, and Natasha find Melina we see just how trauma is two-fold, yet the same: how we hold together and what holds us together! From Yelena and Natasha fighting in Budapest, Melina alerting the Red Room where they are, Red Guardian bonding all his identity to Captain America (Steve Rogers), and the freed Widows not knowing what to do after being given said freedom. Trauma is unavoidable, unsustainable…but unavoidable.
7.) When women work together, they can do anything. What I loved about this movie–yes, loved!–is the relationship between Yelena and Natasha. I loved how Melina gave Natasha the rundown of the Red Room while prepping her what she’s about to face, and even how Taskmaster–Antonia, Drekov’s daughter–had to be freed from her own father and his desire to dominate women. The takeaway–when women of all walks of life work together–we can topple the toxic patriarchy.
Natasha Romanov deserved, and still deserves, so much more.
Stay tuned for Part 2.
Behind the Scenes: The Death Of Peter Parker And Other Fairy Tales (Part 4)
–and I held the mask.
Peter Parker being content
to be both open and secret,
the love unseen because
you could not be what I needed–
but the mask.
Oh, the mask.
Spider-Man to Peter Parker to
Spider-Man, leaving me to love both
lie, myth, and man.
I lived for the kisses in the rain,
upside down, to be held right-side up
making tears as rain–
living for the secret.
–JBHarris, July 2021
I Breathe Fire 