June Powers is a self-taught, African American poet from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, now residing in Phoenix, Arizona. She holds a BS from Philadelphia University. Their broadside, Not the Same, is part of the permanent collection of the University of Arizona Poetry Center.
Self-published works include three books of narrative poetry: CHILD/poems of consciousness, SOUTH/poems of passing through, and HEART/poems of love. A work has been published in the Snowdrift Anthology/2021 by Quillkeepers Press. Other poems can be read on Instagram, Facebook, and Goodreads. They are currently working on a new collection of narrative poems expressing the intersection of the human condition and the environment. Books are available on Amazon.
The photo was taken in Chicago in a park created in honor of the esteemed poet, Gwendolyn Brooks.
Ms. Brooks was one of the great writers who was offered the responsibility of chairing the Library of Congress before the position was officially called poet laureate.
Poem: A Part of You
If I stand next to you, will I become as beautiful as a summer storm
That can’t determine the color it should be – the force it should have
Or not have and so continue for days
At a back and forth pace until the sun taps in as reminder to stop now-
Just stop.
It’s enough to see clearly the pink haze of the horizon
In between the buildings – skyscrapers and houses holding the laundry
Trying to dry
For the umpteenth time we forgot we forgot to take it in and so left
It waving, the same way
I see your hand when you reluctantly board the train.
I cry for not seeing you.
I am not going to see you for days which will seem
Like “neverness” that long until I can stand next to you
And breathe again the freshness of your smile again
And grow more beautiful again-
As part of you.
June Powers ©2022
