Our Poems:
Where Words Paint a Picture
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
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Ray Jane Cycles Workshop Oct 16, 2022
Cycles: The Soft Life
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“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
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Ray Jane Cycles Workshop Oct 16, 2022
Cycles: In the Col(lab)
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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”
Cycle Feb 19th
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
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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
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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
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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”
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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
Rachel R
Poet’s Corner: 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 Jertson, Caroline T
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.
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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
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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