top of page
Search

The Poet Kaylé - Summer Poetry Contest

Kayla Green Placed 3rd in our Summer Poetry Contest and won $50 and I Am Root Merch. Kayla is an awesome writer and we are glad that she chose to submit to our contest again. She won 1st Place in the 2018 Summer Contest - read more.



Get to know Kayla!

Bio: 

Kayla is a self-published poet, rapper and spoken word artist. She creatively goes by her alias, The Poet Kaylé, and her writing is inspired by her fascination of knowledge and human emotion as she educates people about her positionality in the world as a Black Woman. After completing her BS in Political Science, she is currently continuing her education as an MA Candidate in International Affairs with a regional focus on the African continent. 

 

Topic: The Voice of Today

 

Beloved

Give me the words to speak.

I see my past looking at me.

I see my future looking to you.

I see meaning on the horizon coming to rapture me from a deep slumber.

I see me.

I see that I am seen.

I see you.

I see love all over you.

I have what they cannot take away from me.

I have you.

-

The dragging of the body.

Tied to the back of a moving car.

You wouldn’t guess that man was a cop.

That body strayed too far from home.

On and on, that man drove.

Back into town to dispose of that load.

Her honor left on that road.

He raped that body.

The neck of that body.

Wrapped carefully in a noose.

That noose snapped that neck.

That noose murdered her son in a moment that will last a lifetime.

That body dangles on a tree like an ornament as the breeze blows.

That body sways like its dancing a dance it forgot the steps to.

That body sitting in that desk.

That desk she sits in, with gum underneath it.

She watches her teacher look down at her like a villain.

That teacher’s voice is like a weapon.

That beats her brains in.

When she dares to exist.

I take that body home.

That body has a name. Has a home.

Got us.

They take my blood.

My momma’s blood.

My Nana’s blood.

Madea’s Blood.

I take my blood. These lines are my blood.

Our blood is love on love.

On these lines I write life.

We know how to love.

I clean you up.

Dust the dirt off your clothes.

I cut the rope.

I teach you what I know.

I will not lie to you.

Come home to us.

We will love you back to life.

When I look at you I see royalty.

Where you sit is a thrown.

You press the pain into jewels to fashion on your crown.

You make everything you touch beautiful.

You know how to love.

Even when you lose, you thrive.

And I will hold you up when they uproot you from the ground.

You still grow.

Like the concrete that could not hold back the rose.

Black Woman, you are bold.

You stream springs of living water from your eyes.

You do not know salty tears.

You exude nothing less of excellence.

Black Woman, you are exquisite.

I see who you truly are.

You do not lack life.

Your heart beats like mine.

Black Woman, come home.

I will call you by name.

Chatleena Lyles

Shukri Ali

Deborah Danner

Rekia Boyd

Miriam Carey

Aiyana Stanley-Jones

Mya Hall

Jazmine Barnes

Erica Garner

Joselita de Souza

Venida Browder

My love, come home.

I will love you back to life.

We know how to love.

I feel what you feel.

I see what you see.

I possess what you possess.

I know who I am.

I am sweet as honey.

Doused in beloved melanin.

My womb like a rose that blooms in the most formidable of adversities.

In the depths of tribulation,

In the belly of the beast,

I rise.

From the debris of destruction I birth creation.

Restoration runs through my veins.

I am forever metamorphosing into my womanhood.

Where my trauma no longer afflicts my spirit.

Where mercy rushes over me like a wave.

Honor is finally bestowed at my feet in the home that I have made.

Black woman you are more than enough.

You are what they can’t hold.

Who they cannot scold.

You are what they can’t touch.

You are someone who can say no.

Those bullets don’t hit.

Black woman, you are impenetrable.

You don’t belong on the floor.

Let me pick you up.

I will bring you home.

We will love back to life.

We know how to love.


- The Poet Kaylé

 

WINNERS ANNOUNCED ON IG LIVE

OUR JUDGING PROCESS

Thanks for reading, subscribe www.iamrootco.com/about or on www.youtube.com/c/iamrootco1


bottom of page