A Mantra to Fuel Me

I wrote this poem to provide myself with a reminder, a mantra of sorts, when I was feeling discouraged after listening to news stories about ways that voting rights have been, and continue to be, undermined. Writing the poem restored me.

A few weeks later, I was in a class with one of my teachers, Leslie Avant-Brown of Blooming Willow Coaching, in which she talked about power. What takes our power? And what charges us?

In that class, I realized I can listen to news and absorb what’s being said in a way that drains my power, or I can take what’s being said, and use it as fuel. 

In rereading the words of the poem, and adding images to them, I see how my words seek to recharge me, and remind me that I still have strength, and that my strength can be fortified if I do these things:

• Turn to history to learn how others have faced the challenges that we face today,
• donate to causes and people who are doing work to address the issues that I care about,
• listen to young people who have ideas for different ways of thinking and doing, and
• draw, write and listen to my own unknowing.

The photos in this collage were made by the following photographers: Eye for Ebony, Dan Stark, Nourdine Diouane, Luis Galvez, Giulia May and Mwangi Gatheca – all on Unsplash.