Poem by Keisha Gaye-Anderson

May my expansion be a cleansing rain

May my stubborn surviving usher in a revolution of love 

May the silencer of our slow displacement from places grown on the trellis of our sweat

shatter to pieces when I speak the truth

Nothing

Nothing 

Nothing

Can eliminate 

what it didn’t create 

The death rattle is null

like a baby kicking its mother 

from the inside 

It’s all noise

ignore it 

Be brave

and sing a song 

that takes us to tomorrow 

“Take Us to Tomorrow” is published by Keisha Gaye-Anderson in celebration of the Caribbean-American Heritage Month. The Caribbean-American Heritage Month is celebrated by proclamation of the President (Barak Obama) and Congress in the United States in June to honor the achievements and contributions of Caribbean immigrants and their descendants living in the United States, particularly in government, sports, entertainment, and the arts.

Keisha-Gaye Anderson is an award-winning poet, author, visual artist, and communications strategist based in Brooklyn, New York. Her books include Everything Is Necessary, Gathering the Waters, and A Spell for Living. Keisha’s writing has appeared in Academy of American Poets, Prairie Schooner, Ploughshares, Kweli, The Caribbean Writer, and many other magazines and journals. She has received fellowships and/or grants from the NY Foundation for the Arts, NY State Council on the Arts, Martha’s Vineyard Institute for Creative Writing, and the Laundromat Project.

She is a past VONA and Callaloo fellow and was a Brooklyn Public Library Artist in Residence. In her early career, she worked as a producer for PBS, CBS, and NHK (Japanese TV) and as a writer for magazines like Black Enterprise, Psychology Today, and Teen People. Keisha’s art has been exhibited widely, including venues like Weeksville Heritage Center, Restoration Plaza, and Carter Burden Gallery. Keisha lectures in English at LaGuardia Community College, CUNY and Poets House, and leads creative writing workshops internationally. Learn more at www.keishagaye.ink.

Books:
Everything Is Necessary (Willow Books 2019), Gathering the Waters (Jamii 2014), and A Spell for Living (Agape 2020), named Editor’s Choice for the Numinous Orisons, Luminous Origin Literary Award.
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Twitter: @KeishaGaye1
Instagram: @KeishaGayeAnderson
View Keisha’s art in her store.