4 haiku by Sonia Sanchez
4 haiku
Sonia Sanchez(for Max Roach)
1.
i need to
catch your brain
and steady it2.
let’s impeach
this yellow detour
of your memory3.
how dare
your sweet hands
forget you!4.
i kiss the
surprise always in
your eyes.
MARGINALIA
1.
Day 16 of The Sealey Challenge. Today’s offering is Morning Haiku by Sonia Sanchez.
2.
I like how this collection invites readers to slow down and take in brief moments of beauty. The poems honour the lives and legacies of African American artists and activists who have left their mark on the world. Through these haikus, the poet pays tribute to voices like Maya Angelou and Toni Morrison, drawing us into a space where remembrance is woven with reverence for the everyday.
3.
What I love haikus as a form is that they may be short, but they are brimming with emotion and imagery, and in this book they paint vivid pictures of loss and love and resilience. These poems are intimate yet they also speak of a collective memory that spans lives past and present—they convey so much with so little. It reminds me that even the smallest poems can hold vast oceans of meaning, and what a treasure that is.
KEEP READING
SHARED WITH GRATITUDE
This poem appeared in Morning Haiku by Sonia Sanchez, published by Beacon Press, 2010. (Available on: Amazon • Bookshop)
DESCRIPTION
“Poems of commemoration and loss for readers of all ages, from a leading writer of the Black Arts Movement and the American Poetry Society’s 2018 Wallace Stevens Award–winner.
Sonia Sanchez’s collection of haiku celebrates the gifts of life and mourns the deaths of revered African American figures in the worlds of music, literature, art, and activism. In her verses, we hear the sounds of Max Roach “exploding in the universe,” the “blue hallelujahs” of the Philadelphia Murals, and the voice of Odetta “thundering out of the earth.” Sanchez sings the praises of contemporaries whose poetic alchemy turns “words into gems”: Maya Angelou, Richard Long, and Toni Morrison. And she pays homage to peace workers and civil rights activists from Rosa Parks and Congresswoman Shirley Chisholm to Brother Damu, founder of the National Black Environmental Justice Network. Often arranged in strings of twelve or more, the haiku flow one into the other in a steady song of commemoration. Sometimes deceptively simple, her lyrics hold a very powerful load of emotion and meaning.
There are intimate verses here for family and friends, verses of profound loss and silence, of courage and resilience. Sanchez is innovative, composing haiku in new forms, including a section of moving two-line poems that reflect on the long wake of 9/11. In a brief and personal opening essay, the poet explains her deep appreciation for haiku as an art form. With its touching portraits and by turns uplifting and heartbreaking lyrics, Morning Haiku contains some of Sanchez’s freshest, most poignant work.” (Source)
ABOUT SONIA SANCHEZ
Sonia Sanchez was born in 1934 in Birmingham, Alabama. She earned her BA in political science from Hunter College in 1955, did postgraduate work at New York University, and studied poetry under the mentorship of poet Louise Bogan. Sanchez is the author of more than 20 books, including Homecoming (1969), We a BaddDDD People (1970), Love Poems (1973), I’ve Been a Woman: New and Selected Poems (1978), A Sound Investment (1980), Homegirls and Handgrenades (1984), Under a Soprano Sky… (more)
Read more poems by Sonia Sanchez • Find books by this poet on Amazon • Bookshop • Follow on Twitter • Facebook • Website • Or view my library
ENDNOTES
- This is Day 16 of The Sealey Challenge 2024—a community challenge to read one book of poetry a day for the month of August, named after Nicole Sealey.
- Explore other works in pursuit of: tenderness • the body • memory • Or browse the index
- If this work resonates with you, please consider supporting the archive. Thank you for reading.
