What Being

What Being "Poet and Spoken Word Artist of 2006" Has Meant to Me

I wasn’t expecting to see my name in the May 17 issue of Connect Savannah News Magazine announcing that its readers had voted me “Poet and Spoken Word Artist of 2006.” I had picked up a copy of the annual “Best of Savannah” edition to give to a fellow writer who was visiting my hometown for her birthday.

Only after I dropped off a copy for the visiting writer did I return home, sit down, open the magazine, and BAM! There it was. Or there I was, sandwiched between the stories on the best theatre company and the best concert event.

I couldn’t help wondering how it was that readers had voted me best poet/spoken word artist when I had given so few live performances after becoming a full-time caregiver for my mother way back in 2000. Caregiving was something I did right up until February 2006, when she passed.

It took me a while to figure it out, but I finally realized the readers were responding to more than my rare appearances at the microphone. They were responding to the poems that had been published in ESSENCE Magazine and the ones that had been posted on various sites around the Internet. They were also responding to two things that had nothing to do with poetry. One was the public knowledge that I had stepped away from the spotlight to serve family needs. The other was several journalism pieces I had written about sensitive issues.

The vote of recognition from the readers taught me that what poets say on the page remains as significant––if not moreso––as what we say on the stage. It also taught me that readers prefer their poets human.

Not so hyper-sexed that they needed to whip out condoms just to say hello. Not so esoterically intellectual or impenetrably slang that interpreters had to be called in just to appreciate any single line of their work. Not so mesmerized by their own enchantment with egotistical self that they had no authentic Self left to share in the needs, trials, and beauty of the community.

Why did I take these lessons so deeply to heart? Because what the readers had chosen to appreciate and celebrate about me as a poet were things I had nearly forgotten about myself as a human being while meeting the extraordinary challenge of being a caregiver. Their real gift was not just the award or honor of being named Poet and Spoken Word Artist of the Year 2006. It was the gift of memories they had preserved on my behalf, and returned to me when I needed them most.

Midnight Skylark Aberjhani
author of I Made My Boy Out of Poetry,
Visions of a Skylark Dressed in Black,
Encyclopedia of the Harlem Renaissance,
and The Wisdom of W.E.B. Du Bois
© 12/16/2006

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Maria Daines

12/16/2006 3:58:31 PM

This is fantastic and so beautifully written, very best wishes to you and thank you for sharing your thoughts, what a wonderful gift and a new perspective for your 2007, enjoy every minute :)

Maria xx

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