My Peace by Alissa Merritt

Like T’challa in the realm with ancestors 

The wind as their embrace 

Painting for hours on end 

Being intentional about not looking at the clock during me time as

creativity comes to me through all avenues of the brain from the gyri and sulci

Poetry flowing as fast as the Nile river

Sustaining grow, learning, maturing

And healing

Loving the land on which I coexist 

Protecting life like the Anhk

Having qualities of the eye of Horus

Protected, healthy and full of restoration

Loving the trauma within that little girl inside of me

Aroma of sage and palo santo in the atmosphere 

Affirmations, praying, mantras 

Yoga beneath the solar rays as it kisses my gorgeous melanated skin

Self-assurance in it’s true form of a goddess 

Being able to love a world even though it don’t love me back

Laughing at ignorance because individuals sound so discombobulated 

Knowing I’m amazing even though the struggle 

Protecting my peace

Channeling my energy for the positive 

Having parties full of dancing, soca, dance hall, and Afro beats

Learning how to enjoy the silence and still

Silence the best sound in the world 

Alissa Merritt is a young black woman writer and poet from Southeast Georgia. She was first introduced to poetry in the second grade, through the works of  Langston Hughes — quickly becoming her first love. After experiencing a concussion injury through cheerleading her junior year of high school, Merritt rediscovered her passion for the art form. Her words helped her to experience a deeper healing, and so she decided to share her work with others in hopes that they’d be healed too.

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