It’s early morning as dust dances in the early sunlight. Our eldest is lounging on the linoleum floor and playing with her hair as we listen to Count Basie. Our middle child is outside watering the vegetable garden; his morning grounding practice is to nourish the ground. My youngest child is snoring on his dad’s chest.
When we grasp these moments, we live outside these tumultuous American times. We are choosing ourselves and each other, infusing these moments of peace into our bones as if the ancestors built a ladder of wisdom into our nucleotide. You must live, I feel them whisper. You must live with all that love we baked into the lining of our wombs.
As political and cultural chaos continues to pounce on us, this pursuit of timelessness grows heavy. But how do we writers recreate the timelessness that casts itself into eternity? How do we turn that timelessness into a touchstone?
There is a poetic form called the dekaaz, created by Rachel Bagby. She is a Black woman advisor and instigator of cultural change who invented the Dekaaz poem format. Dekaaz is a poetic form and practice that uses the poetic intelligence of just 10 syllables. It translates “Oh, Wow” into insights and potential action.
A dekaaz poem must be read aloud; if it’s not, it’s not dekaaz. It is a short poem that goes on forever as it enters the ear and lives in our memories.
Together, Rachel and I pursued timelessness in dekaaz poetry. Exploring the awe found in the timelessness of Black womanhood. You can read our dekaaz below and listen to the audio recording of our voices pursuing timeless together.
a well loved woman begins with herself what can cathedrals give that you don’t have? hair that holds a comb will bend gravity bonnets protect hair and gentle genius bracelets clink and clash while cornrowing hair empty canvases stare at you in awe what fear can I have I myself am life every fleck of gold dancing in brown skin my ears crave darkness speak obsidian rhythm and blues, we’re all rhythm and blues
