July 27, 2013 It feels like I waited a lifetime for you and by other’s standards I have. I was 35 when you were born. Most of my friends’ kids are already teenagers and here I am celebrating your first birthday. There are times when it all still seems so surreal to me. I feel like I am in the best dream that one day … Continue reading The Mamí Chronicles: A Letter to My Daughter on her 1st Birthday
A tree grows in Brooklyn and so did my dreams on the cracked asphalt of tenement building stoops a flower trying to break through but roses don’t bloom here that’s what I was told Never believing that I could ever see a world beyond my periphery struggling with tunnel vision I watch passersby and they watch me, holding my baby close, never expecting me … Continue reading Asphalt Dreams (on Palmetto Street)
he wore love on his arm tatted on his skin, a reminder to love himself because no one will do the job better but instead, he loved her dutifully in the morning in the evening and until the sun rose again her warmth had become his security seeking her out whenever he was afraid she was the sun at dusk that kissed the sky goodnight … Continue reading Tattoo
Dear Fear, There are days that I don’t think about you at all. You hide yourself well often appearing when I least expect it. I see you in my baby girl’s smiling eyes I hear you in her coos I feel you in her embrace I smell you in her scent, as I hold her tightly while she tugs gently on my face Knowing that … Continue reading Writing Prompt: Dear Fear..
What I always wanted, was to feel her touch like inspiration. Slightly parted lips that greet me hello every morning the way the sun kisses the sky at dawn. She is heaven and I want to live in her forever. Build legacies from the ground up because she comes from a strong foundation. Teach her how beautiful she is, not because of how she looks, … Continue reading NYCLWG Prompt: What I always wanted…
liberation won’t come through prayer, even though I’ve tried to free myself from the temptation of his kiss, his touch, the way he whispers my name when we make love lost deep in the ocean of my scent, his hands, paint petroglyphs on my skin I carry traces of his love like DNA addiction of any kind can be deadly and I’ll admit I … Continue reading Liberation
A few years ago I wrote a poem titled The Chosen which spoke of my struggle to conceive. It was probably the most personal poem I’ve ever written. With the birth of my beautiful daughter I felt that it was necessary to write a follow-up poem because I have finally been chosen to be a mother. These past five months have been the best five months of … Continue reading The Chosen (Part 2)
This want of knowing is greater than the need of oxygen in my lungs For, to be alive and not know who you are or where you’re from is not the same as living. De donde vengo yo is not a question. It is a statement. An affirmation of where I’m from. Because where I’m from, history wears the face of family. It’s my grandmother’s … Continue reading De Donde Vengo Yo (Where I’m From)
if you were a pure bolt of fire cutting the skies i’d touch you risking my life not because i’m brave or strong but because i’m fascinated by what the outcome will be. ~Nikki Giovanni *That excerpt is from Nikki Giovanni’s poem Fascinations. Continue reading Fascinations
“The moment a child is born, the mother is also born. She never existed before. The woman existed, but the mother, never. A mother is something absolutely new.” ~Rajneesh I came across that quote a couple of years ago when I first started writing my book, Welcome to Heartbreak. I found it to be simple, beautiful, and honest. For me it symbolized the feeling of motherhood, a feeling … Continue reading Reborn
nancy arroyo ruffin 