Our Poems:
Where Words Paint a Picture
2025
Art Defined Cycles:
Poetry Writing Workshop
Theme: A Calling in Catastrophe?
Date: January 26, 2025
Instructor: Ray Jane
I am called to the catastrophe
Out of control but fully in view
I must find the words to speak in protest
Strong.
I am called to the catastrophe
I won't change my hues to appeal to
the powerful's queues.
There is no curtain to hide behind
or protect you
I must find the words to speak in protest
Strong.
watching you underestimate
how I'll respond to you.
My being alive is a protest
like my mother
raised a fist
I have been called to this catastrophe to assess
the ruins and carpet bomb, the devastation
with the simplest of solutions…
common f%*king sense.
The same thing that due to lack of.....
got us here in the first place
I am called to the catastrophe
I must find the words
to speak in protest
Strong.
As I pour libations for those
who taught me
freedom song
@pjsamuelspoet
@kellymarymcallister
@shockieg_the_poet
@NiteclubGirl
@cfirst_rlast
@fathomtwist
Art Defined Cycles:
Poetry Writing Workshop
Theme: Love in War
Date: February 8, 2025
Instructor: Ray Jane
This love is built for war
How are we going to respond
Only the strongest have the fortitude
To lay down their weapons
And
seek peace
Courageously
brave
to refuse to take orders
from a fascist beast
This love is built for war
Yet it fights with hands made
for holding
Armor of joy, tears of triumph
Tears of war let me shed no more
I patiently wait, you know not the depth
of my endurance, my strength
This love is built for war
For ten toes down
all seasons, ride and ride and never die
Love
is an anchor and not
a flotation device
Despite the deceitful packaging
That tells you otherwise
I am determined to unearth the truth.
@pjsamuelspoet
@tanyamayb
@cfirst_rlast
@kellymarymcalliste
@the chameleonpoetic
@fathomtwist
Art Defined Cycles:
Poetry Writing Workshop
Theme: Aint I a woman?
Date: March 9, 2025
Instructor: Ray Jane
“who prays for her when she is prey?”
she is not a cheerleader or the player on the court
She must make a shield to surround her knit
of long strands of her grandmother's gray hair and the
spiraling skin of a peeled apple.
Where were you when no meant no
Who hears when she screams out in pain
Or
Are you the one who answers when she screams out
Or some variation
Those with pure hearts knowing the power of prayer.
Who hunts the hunters when she finds a way to get away?
True love; survival; my act of rebellion in a “man’s” world
“I fed him in defiance”
“…of what nature bequeathed me, a birthright…”
Who will have the courage to say, enough is enough
Who fixes the cape on her back and slide off
the bags of burden
A middle finger up to the lawmakers
who fed at some woman’s breast
Who lost their way from the womb
they were expelled from
to the wombs they are trying to slither into
“who prays for her when she is prey?”
Look away there is nothing to see here
God's eyes see everything
and all at once
@pjsamuelspoet
@fathomtwist
@Kglopez_
@cfirst_rlast
@emma.suarez.1614
@la.doctora.susana
@creating.cristina
@NiteclubGirl
@Kellymarymcalliste
bearwolf.poetaf
@Phynne_belle
@TheChameleonPoetic
Art Defined Cycles:
Generative Poetry Writing Workshop
Theme: Unnatural Disasters
Date: April 6, 2025
Instructor: Ray Jane, Paul Con Queso,
Author: Our brave participants
My poetry is a flood
blues that soothe the human spirit
while the tide looks scary in size
Emotions, honestly, caught in rushing,
crashing, blue softness — un-damable
I can be a disaster
when my voice isn't heard
of words that bury thought or
is it my thoughts bury words
my poetry is a flood
beating with sweat,
tears and blood
My poetry is a flood
A paper container of eggs
in a hurricane
The flame
from a single matchstick
My voice
is a hurricane drowning
in the flood
gasping for sustenance
of my truth
disaster -- in the hereafter,
knowing destruction isn't an art
that hard to master --
my heart beats faster until it halts
& I'm collateral
@adrock_71
@pjsamuelspoet
@cfirst_rlast
Art Defined Cycles:
Generative Poetry Writing Workshop
Theme: A Mother’s Love?
Date: May 11, 2025
Instructor: Ray Jane,
Author: Our brave participants
My mother is more than what her womb could hold
An upside down squirrel smiling at the ocean
A leek growing out of limestone rocks
A scream with spikes on she is the tree that hugs back
All cinnamon and cloves she is an unspooling cassette tape
Top hat and theatre she is butterfly and moth
In her dreams I am champagne and toast and I live forever
“My mother is more than what her womb could hold”
And still I follow
Where you go I go too
We are never through
And I arrive there
Without fame or fortune
And I knew she knew
And still she calls me
Be my Savior, my son,
My brother of the moon
@pjsamuelspoet
@fathomtwist
​
Art Defined Cycles:
Generative Poetry Writing Workshop
Theme: Where is the Community?
Date: June 8, 2025
Instructor: Ray Jane,
Author: Our brave participants
What will you do when they come for me
Will you put your body between us?
Embody in your bones the principles
that spill easily from your lips?
Art Defined Cycles:
Poetry Writing Workshop
Theme: Influenced & Overstimulated
Date: July 27, 2025
Instructor: Ray Jane
My influence is a weapon
this influence is a weapon”
One shot straight to the
broken bloodlined hearts.
this influence is a weapon”
you can turn it into a helping hand
A weapon loaded with inspiration,
transmutation and resistance!
cargo net on a dinghy afloat
in the Bermuda triangle
peeling the sun like a sour orange
Another weapon we do not need
please please please
2024
Art Defined Cycles:
Poetry Writing Workshop
Theme: Are you recognizable by your values
Date: January 28, 2024
Instructor: Ray Jane
Author: Our brave participants
Would you know me by my values?
The neighbors call me a fool for feeding
Stray cats and children
For wiping their runny noses with my
finest lace
i try to show my values in my face, my
actions, my
Life, my grace to you
Do I portray what I profess?
I would never twist language
always looking
for the poetry in each moment
I choose to soar
My place is here
in this imperfect world
so why do I expect perfection?
Do you know me yet?
Eye am love at my best
And eye tend to forgive the rest
The struggle to yearn for a healthy lifestyle
Defines me or so
Overclouds my head
Do I portray what I profess?
Would you see God in me
as I speak to the unhoused
in these mean streets,
do I hold the ancestors lessons in my smile
Maestro
Susana @la.doctora.susana
PJ @pjsamuelspoet
Carla Schick
Connie Taylor
Jarvic P
Art Defined Cycles:
Poetry Writing Workshop
Theme: Where is the love?
Date: February, 2024
Instructor: Ray Jane
Author: Our brave participants
I made my love a river
and drowned in it
A river that flows through our bodies
a bridge that crosses troubled waters
love from me to you
I made my love shimmer
in growing circles, kiss
the edges of the river's bank.
And it flowed through my womb
I dove into the depths without fear
I made my love a river
for your waves to crash down on me
Watering my parched places
where scattered seeds have yet to take root
I made my love a river of all the tears
I've ever cried for those unworthy of my love..
Could something beautiful
sprout from broken promises?
Could something divine
come from something
that has never truly been whole?
Carla- @carlswrite25
@pjsamuelspoet
@la.doctora.susana
@raynebking
@norm_mattox
@kellymarymcallister
Art Defined Cycles:
Poetry Writing Workshop
Theme: Remember the Time
Date: March 10, 2024
Instructor: Ray Jane
Author: Our brave participants
I am a weaving of my memories
Thread by thread joining sadness
and joy
A tapestry of worn down threads,
"I am a weaving of my memories"
However don't mind the tears on
the fabric. The strands of my past
into
the tapestry of my future
Yes. I am woven through --
with golden threads, with threads
of glory and song.
an allegory of ambition
aching for acceptance amidst
the allure of acclaim
we cut patterns from the same cloth,
remember the same promises differently
​
@pjsamuelspoet
@norm_mattox
@kellymarymcallister
@shockieGthepoet
Art Defined Cycles:
Poetry Writing Workshop
Theme: Conspiracy Poetry
Date: April 21, 2024
Instructor: Ray Jane
Author: Our brave participants
“My existence is no conspiracy”
It is a solid thing, tangible and undeniable
It is a destiny conjured by my ancestors,
the resting place of their memories.
Born decades after my brothers and sisters,
born centuries after those before — do not, I sing,
do not doubt my beginnings — I belong for destiny is real.
persistent against all tyranny
“My existence is no conspiracy”
just ask the alien who lives next door to me
anon : "no accident or mix with aliens"
“My existence is no conspiracy”
just ask the alien who lives next door to me
My existence is no conspiracy ---- I
been running since I got here
@pjsamuelspoet
@kellymarymcallister
Art Defined Cycles:
Poetry Writing Workshop
Theme: Soft Life Part Deux
Date: August 25, 2024
Instructor: Ray Jane
I am suede
Give me grace, give me mercy
Hold my head high, firm in my worth
i’m giving me grace, i’m giving me mercy
I'm giving me grace for hesitation when
opening my throat to speak. As when
the hardness of the words hit they may not
be well received
This body is no apology. sometimes things
have no rationalities in this bittersweet reality
This body is no apology.
It’s straightforward and proud
no excuses made for perfect imperfections
this body is no apology.
This answer to the prayers
the ancestors plaited into cornrows
This laid and loved and soft, so soft
I have much to ask pardon for, I don’t deny,
This body is no apology.
but this temple of mine, this body, I
embrace without apology for I am, I
say today with song and full voice a beautiful ecology
This old thing?
I pulled it on this morning
@pjsamuelspoet
@norm_mattox
@kglopez_
connie taylor @fathomtwist
lynn
Amira Mustapha
elizabeth tan
Art Defined Cycles: Poetry Writing Workshop
Theme: Do You Speak Power?Date: September 8, 2024
Instructor: Ray Jane
​​I speak in power
Empowered by my ancestors, I am no longer afraid
so that the fountain of love and light flowing within fills every crevice of this void
In repeating incantations placed
in the back of my throat at 4am
waterfalls In the answer to the call my ancestors prayed in their survival.
we live now.
we live forever.
Because I am not a puppet letting someone's hand shoved up my back speak for me
Breath behind my words,
I speak in power
With a brilliant song in my soul echoing the chaos and creation of the universe
Art Defined Cycles: Poetry Writing Workshop
Theme: Listeing to You Intuition Date: October 13th, 2024
Instructor: Ray Jane
“my intuition arrived shouting”
I could not turn aside, I could not hear
unraveling secrets long kept
I sink in this ink
our intuition
is the light in the shadows
You were called from before
you were born
Listen listen listen,
your gut has the answers. Be still.
Listen
Take me by the horns and embark
on this journey of confidence,
clarity and trust in my inner voice
Art Defined Cycles:
Poetry Writing Workshop
Theme: Intuition: Are you listening?
Date: November 10, 2024
Instructor: Ray Jane
When I was silent
hate spoke out
I stood by
as it went free
The joy of sisterhood
gives us power.
It spoke loud and furious
with excess steam
And they closed up
spirt rejected poison daggers
Art Defined Cycles:
Poetry Writing Workshop
Theme: Duality, Under a Gemini Moon
Date: December 15, 2024
Instructor: Ray Jane & Paul Con Queso
​Under the moon, I release me
Under the moon I am free to catch feelings
Beneath the moon i speak of what fights me
i commune with la luna as she ignites the
incendiary flames of rage I stoke nightly
of what freezes the blood in my veins
makes my heart stone
what takes the light and
makes comfort of the night
under the moon, I release me
I forgive me
I unbind myself from all
that you want me to be
beneath the moon i speak of what fights me
i am stronger than the self that is afraid
hiding in vulnerability. Under the moon,
I release me a compounded emotion of relief
and gratitude for the new day to come
They don’t understand the things I’ve been through,
the things I’ve lived through, the pain I knew.
Under the moon, I release me
@pjsamuelspoet
@adrock_718
@norm_mattox
Terri R
Chris
2023
Art Defined Cycles: Poetry Writing Workshop
Theme: Collab Part Deux- R(3)storation
Date: April 30, 2023
Instructor: Ray Jane & Paul Con Queso
Authored by our brave participants
“Yesterday’s battles are done now”
take a breath and go with the flow
I breathe in slow and exhale
As if me and exhaustion are intertwined until end’s time.
Inhaling life’s tomorrow”
ignore the mental scream within saying "I can't breathe"
Tomorrow became today
I scream into an abyss searching for resuscitation
As the water of life bathes the battered and tattered soul,
Can feel like sunshine.... so get you some!
we will continue to thrive
for it is the nature of the spirit to be tenacious.
We are present creatures becoming the future
“Yesterday’s battles are done now”
Nikki Gray Holmes
Norm Mattox
Beeyonka
MJ Blackwell
Principe Guity Jr
Elizabeth
Bonnie Boucek
Terri Rose-Jertsen
Bryan Franco “Generalissimo”
Art Defined Cycles:
Poetry Writing Workshop
Date: Feb 19th
Instructor: Ray Jane
Author: Our brave participants
The space my body takes up is a bridge
Filling the gap between a rock and hard place…only concrete thoughts are welcomed here because I’m tired of floating…
Stuck somewhere between a rock and a hard place, the chasm cracked when I discovered there are nails made precisely to penetrate concrete.
Suspended in air. black girl magic touching the shorelines of disconnected lovers
leading to paths of healing, holistic fun and growth with empathy.
empathy for you reminds me of what i forget needs my sympathy for me
Art Defined Cycles: Poetry Writing Workshop
Theme: Chasing Joy
Date: March 26, 2023
Instructor: Ray Jane
Authored by our brave participants
My joy is an act of rebellion
Misidentified as a thief, but never a giver
Rising my fist in solidarity in the belief of
freedom and in the joy of triumph
I wield it as a shield that wraps around my soul
When i show up as the unicorn in this gathering
my overt joy seeing the disdain in your frown
I share my joy with you, share it with others
My joy is resistance from the norm
Against those who would repress life's joy
My joy is my sharpest weapon and it cuts deep
Armed and dangerous i bring you joy from a
bubble wand, blow it at will
My joy is reclaiming my stolen joy
My joy is sugar deluging salt of oppression's tears
My joy is stomping on the enemies who tried to defeat me
it is winning in the midst of all doubts as they witness my rise
My joy will fuck you up and smile after doing so.
While wrongs are turned upside down, sideways,
and right as love wriggles and wrangles its way through
the cracks– a balm to soothe the tattered soul
Art Defined Cycles: Poetry Writing Workshop
Theme: Resurrection
Date: April 9, 2023
Instructor: Ray Jane
Authored by our brave participants
“I resurrect to reincarnate”
​​I bring the ancient into a new that will be others' ancient
I will return ... better than ever.
I enter the tomb as a corpse and leave as a god.
I am the topsoil that one day will be the bedrock of your garden.
seeds germinate from the marrow left at the end of my decay
wings lifted me to heights above. love beyond love
I will not blow away -- I take root even now
and will show you how to breathe below the surface.
The shadows that lurk, not kept at bay
Ever-starving, will consume your sunshine
Let’s chase them, send them on their way
A god among the myriad gods that we make up one and all
Art Defined Cycles: Poetry Writing Workshop
Theme: Abundance
Date: May 21, 2023
Instructor: Ray Jane
Authored by our brave participants
Abundance is my birthright
I accept this right and bless all I can in kind
And I'm here to claim what is mine!
To line these fingers in the love
He has chosen for me
Supercharging my portion of this timeline,
make it glisten
Abundance is my birthright
And I will blaze and burn bright
bleeding words of power and truth too
I am substrate, soil and textile; I'm here to reclaim
my silk, my corn, my texture.
Third-Eye dreaming -
Abundance is my birthright
Highly intuitive, instrument of the soul
It’s not a dream, it’s seeing the truth, softly.
Gift from the Universe, makes me feel whole.
Connecting from within
Abundance is my birthright
---
Susana Praver-Perez
MJ Blackwell
Elemen2al
Coach Jah Smalls
Michael Sindler
Momma D
K.sunnisavage
Chris Johnston
Connie Taylor
Art Defined Cycles: Poetry Writing Workshop
Theme: Poetry is Protest
Date: June 29, 2023
Instructor: Ray Jane
Authored by our brave participants
When I was silent
they took it as permission
mute // became the mouth // of the gift hen,
Then again, I fixed my own foundation
"they keep clipping my wings"
she intuitions
I’ve held on to our hopes by my fingertips
With love as armor
they took it as permission to wire my mouth shut
so I should never speak my mind
i should have spoken up, like i was on a mission
Major to ground control
My voice is finally lifting
To them, my white noise is the sounds of fanfare
Make up, fanfare
to treat me as a broken rag doll,
too bad and so sad they could not read
the message in my marble black eyes
When I was loud, they saw me, finally.
Art Defined Cycles: Poetry Writing Workshop
Theme: Is Art a Spiritual Language?
Date: July 16, 2023
Instructor: Ray Jane
Authored by our brave participants
My tongue speaks the heart
my ear listens to the heart for truth
like the truth in my bones echoes for all time
my heart beats the truth written on these lines
Looking through my 3rd eye for foresight.
Brimming with scorched tenderness, lips
like the truth in my bones echoes for all time
Caressing the harsh reality of the world
My tongue speaks the heart
whilst embracing the gentleness of new growth.
Like, the truth in my bones for all time. Up
in my Chakras manifesting light
Poetry gives me 20/20 vision
the glare of the sun has tried
to blind my third eye,
My tongue speaks the heart
but third eyes are gifts that cannot be returned
or become obsolete they are us forever. Up
in my Chakras manifesting light. Like
the truth in my bones echoes for all time
@norm_mattox
@FathomTwist
@bonnie_l_boucek
@pjsamuelspoet
@Gnrlsmo
@Unique_on_purpos3
@thechameleonpoetic
@shockieg_the_poet
@baked_by_marlynn
Shockie G, MJ Blackwell, Maestro Norm Mattox, Generalissimio, Momma D, Bonnie L Boucek, PJ, Theresa
Art Defined Cycles: Poetry Writing Workshop
Theme: The Audacity
Date: August 27, 2023
Instructor: Ray Jane
Authored by our brave participants
I was born with the audacity to live
I only know that life is to be freely lived.
Not to be confused with the need to survive
- fight or flight mode not welcomed here.
My eyes tell stories to the contrary,
and my bones don't know any other way,
So, I have found the wings I hid out back
in the garden years ago, and I am learning
to fly again.
who twist ropes around your heart,
who will never feed it to your soul,
that lead me to my husband. . .
but the audacity to live does not give me
the audacity to decide to die
Although I'm no baby bird, fledglings fall
under a mother's watchful eye
and I was born to keep going
And speak truthfully, out loud
“I was born with the audacity to live”
And speak truthfully, out loud
"I was born with the audacity to live"
On Purpose.
Art Defined Cycles: Poetry Writing Workshop
Theme: Frequencies of Feelings
Date:September 3, 2023
Instructor: Ray Jane
Authored by our brave participants
Nothing moves me like melodies
Unless it's a well placed tongue in my sea of uncertainty
Melodies that dance with abandon,
driving even the most unwillingly feet to their rhythm
Birds get a jump on the morning light,
there are worms to be had..
but not without first bursting out in song of a new day…
out on the skinny branches.
like hearing your voice call my name,
this love melody flows like wind in a hurricane
wrapping me in vibrations of love synonyms
Whispering secrets of distant memories
My bones feel the bass.
The Lyrics I embrace.
I feel your frequency enrobe me
Sounds so sweet, tapping my feet.
Getting this groove The music makes me move.
Ik this is water but i wonder how our blood reacts
​​And I am enrapt in all that moves and surrounds/like
your lips flowing with cinnamon.
The sounds of love
Sounds so sweet, tapping my feet.
Something like music and heart
beating in synergy
​
Jennifer Pardy, Zion, Francine Leonard, Connie, Rev. Kyle, Maetsro Norm Mattox, Terri, Kelly, Nikki Grey, Amira, Principe, Shockie G, Sierra PG, Elizabeth, Liz, Karina
​
​
​
Art Defined Cycles: Poetry Writing Workshop
Theme: preparing for Harvest
Date:October 8, 2023
Instructor: Ray Jane
Authored by our brave participants
I was born prepared for harvest
Planted in good soil
under a warm sun
Strange fruit ready to be plucked from
Dying family trees
Gleaning all the best seeds for myself
Ripe and ready, I
Grew with the sun's warmth
Harvest yields enough to share
with the rest
Of the village
Enough is an act of trust, a belief
that what is will be again
Even when crops go bare
We Harvest community amongst ourselves
We thrive together, forming one
Yet hands filled with greed hold back
the fruits of labor sewn
Those beliefs will come back as cardinals
and butterflies, flying free to land on their own objects
@smithwarring
@Shockieg_the_poet
@ TheChamelronPoetic
@neranyiroman
Terri
Sierra PG
Jennifer Pardy
Kelly
Connie Taylor
Rev. Kyle
Norm Mattox
​
​
2022
Ray Jane Cycles
8/21/22 Exquisite Corpse
I choose to change
I choose to rid myself of traumas that keep me alive
while deteriorating my spirit
I am more than my edits, I become the punctuation on dark sides
I remind myself, no one can colonize the tongue of my inner mind
Indomitable, my voice, the will to power, find
Bury my burdens in the graves of control
Sweep the rich earth over to remind us of growth
I know the time has come, I can feel it in my soul
And all I can do is wait and hope new winds might grow,
that i might flutter to the nearest flower and quench my burning thirst
Towards the door I move, shaking as I go
A storm is coming and I will no longer stand back
To stand in the storm and face it is the only way to feel alive
Paul & Ray Jane Collaborative Poetry Writing Workshop
9/19/22
I get my lessons in healing
revealing the demons questioning my beauty
At 15, I jumped at every sound, uncomfortable in my own skin, tried to hide my womanhood by shrinking my own body.
Only the world picked me, like a delicate flower—expecting me to grow from seed to vase—but I’m a thorn, pricking fingers as I'm held too tight in the crushing palm of expectation.
life slips through my fingers, drops to the ground, i am healing before broken, shards spread across, my path, pieces crawl together forward
I run towards the healing horizon
With indigo skies and the fullest clouds clearing my conscience and opening my vision.
I summon lightning, to follow furious thunder rolling, to strike with enlightening, elegant energy to spark new ideas..
​
I call to that spark, to reach into my heart, and light that idea aflame
I will no longer tame my dreams. Aspiring to achieve much more. Travel to earth's core.
Sometimes the body fractures to heal itself, to make you make pay attention to the passing of time
The time passes with the medicine of the golden sun. The warmth are the arms to my clock now.
As the pendulum swings I hear the beating of my heart in sync with the clockwork of being
time flowing through fingers desperate to hold on to sand crystals
If the granules of sand in the hourglass shattered
my heart tries to beat with the rhythm of the cuckoo bird that exits the clock every half-hour and fly away to freedom
Ray Jane Cycles Workshop
Oct 16, 2022
Cycles: The Soft Life
“forgiveness comes when you give it to yourself”
“A gift gold-encrusted with amber-scented liberation”
Will set the soul free. Shifting the energy within thee.
let those burdens go, easily, mark the time with rejoicing, bawdily
when the gold leaf peeled away
the amber melted and released a lone bee
that got caught in sap for centuries
and found a world where his hive no longer exists
Here I flee to make glee
Until every colour blends itself back to infinity.
Ray Jane Cycles: Mouthful of Identity
11/27/22
it is evident that you have read my magic”
though it is unwritten my magic can still be read by an adept
Read, shared and experienced by others
Listener who cares enough to hear
Listener who cares enough to hear…like one who leaves their phone in the pocket, knows the texture of what is painted
If I were stardust, what color would I become in my own fire?
The rich red and black soil of the earth
of what is painted on the underside of their soul
Something unique, each wound different but similar in pain
​
Ray Jane Cycles Workshop
Oct 16, 2022
Cycles: In the Col(lab)
We move like we know it’s just us
where i put my feet is ground we have cultivated together
If I can pause outside time, and have only our time move forward it will still not be enough time
a dance of happiness free from judgement and safe from harm
Because the matrix and algorithms be doing the most.
Without fuss. We are one in the same without lust leading us to touch. Intimacy a must
“Sharing certain looks in silence but their meaning speaks volumes”
​