Ariana Francesca is a Black, mother poet of the Deep South, born and raised in Jonesboro, Georgia. Her work explores the positions, reflections, and interconnectedness of Black motherhood, womanhood, spirit and epic memory. With roots as a performance poet, Ariana’s work has been featured at The Kennedy Center, The Verizon Center, The National Black Arts Festival, on America's Next Top Model, The HistoryMakers, The Philadelphia Inquirer, and other international stages, recordings and compilations. Ariana is also a Queens University of Charlotte MFA, Poetry candidate and Watering Hole Poetry Fellow. Her work is featured or forthcoming in/on Netflix’s Strong Black Lead, Burrow Press, Jelly Bucket Magazine, and elsewhere.
Listen to podcast interview here: https://anchor.fm/melodie-rodgers/episodes/Ariana-Francesca-Thomas--SOREN-LIT-Summer-issue-2021-e13i427
Affirmations in AAVE
by: Ariana Francesca Thomas
I be writing God poems
sound like prayers
read like praise
bellow like promise
easing down Georgia streams
I be baptized in Living Water
soaking in Spirit
saturated in truth
that be bitter sometimes
Sometimes I spit it all out on Holy Ground
stomp a muddy swamp
to quicksand my ankles
swallow flesh ‘til spirit left
and laughing at God’s grace.
Faith be the deliverance
I be reaching for on most days.
In the wee wink of the morning
I find salvation long before the sun
says so. When the Son
says “Don’t blink.” I be witness,
be called qualified
by the Most High.
Ain’t no credential like me.
I be ram in the bush,
be battle horn
that basket on the Nile
floating newborn
that brought the drought,
that split the sea
that pebble in the sling
be all them thangs
too mighty for defeat
I be miracle for testimony
manna every morning.
Every morning I rise
and find Him still
living inside me, still.
Ready to speak,
teach trust to my right foot
enough to go out on the limb
shimmy to the safest place on the planet
while the rest of the world be looking up
Like “How, Sway?”
“How the branch don’t break?
How the storm don’t shake her limbs,
loose chains instead?
How she be just that free?”
Nothing to hold back
bold bravery. I be left
unto Him who is able
to keep me from falling.
I be favor scripted Black ink
cause God love a good love song
love poems soar on winged thanksgiving
from my lips to His ears
I be proof, be clarity
be all He ever wanted,
that’s all I ever want to be.
BIO:
Ariana Francesca is a Black, mother poet of the Deep South, born and raised in Jonesboro, Georgia. Her work explores the positions, reflections, and interconnectedness of Black motherhood, womanhood, spirit and epic memory. With roots as a performance poet, Ariana’s work has been featured at The Kennedy Center, The Verizon Center, The National Black Arts Festival, on America's Next Top Model, The HistoryMakers, The Philadelphia Inquirer, and other international stages, recordings and compilations. Ariana is also a Queens University of Charlotte MFA, Poetry candidate and Watering Hole Poetry Fellow. Her work is featured or forthcoming in/on Netflix’s Strong Black Lead, Burrow Press, Jelly Bucket Magazine, and elsewhere.
Listen to podcast interview here: https://anchor.fm/melodie-rodgers/episodes/Ariana-Francesca-Thomas--SOREN-LIT-Summer-issue-2021-e13i427
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