Poems of Hope

Black History Month 2022: February 25 – Lucille Clifton

In celebration of Black History Month, this week I’m sharing poems about the Black experience that encourage me to keep practicing hope. 

Peace & Blessings,
Marcie Alvis-Walker

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INVOCATION

Spirit, bring our spirits home to rest in our bodies 
and open every window of our minds 
to receive the fresh wind of you. 

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IN THE INNER CITY

by Lucille Clifton

in the inner city
or
like we call it
home
we think a lot about uptown
and the silent nights
and the houses straight as 
dead men
and the pastel lights
and we hang on to our no place 
happy to be alive 
and in the inner city
or
like we call it
home 

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READING

Jeremiah 29: 5-7, The Voice  

Build houses—make homes for your families because you are not coming back to Judah anytime soon. Plant gardens, and eat the food you grow there. Marry and have children; find wives for your sons, and give your daughters in marriage, so that they can have children. During these years of captivity, let your families grow and not die out. Pursue the peace and welfare of the city where I sent you into exile. Pray to Me, the Eternal, for Babylon because if it has peace, you will live in peace.”

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PRAYER 

Make your plans, O God of Hope—
for peace and not evil,
for a hope and future,
tell us the truth and
we will listen and
pray and seek 
and find you, Keeper of Promises, 
gathering all the scattered tatters
of every nation,
piecing them back together, 
settling them-we-us in a new land, 
our eternal, rightful home. 

Amen