[Poetry Friday] “A Poem To Heal The Heart”

Myra here.

Thank you to Margaret at Reflections On The Teche for hosting this week.

A Place Inside Of Me: A Poem To Heal The Heart [Amazon | Book Depository]

Written by Zetta Elliott Illustrated by Noa Denmon
Published by Farrar Straus & Giroux (2020).
ISBN: 9780374307417 (ISBN10: 0374307415). Literary Award: Caldecott Nominee. Borrowed from Overdrive. Book photos taken by me.

I was thrilled to find this poetry picture book via Overdrive, as I have been seeing it make the rounds among the kidlitosphere community.

In this picturebook in verse, a beautiful Black boy is portrayed as going through a myriad of emotions from joy to sorrow, fear to anger, hunger to pride, peace and compassion, to finally hope and love.

I don’t know how Zetta Elliott accomplishes it, but she was able to portray these complex emotions without diminishing their magnitude – and the fact that they can be overwhelming and is rooted someplace that is still hurting and wounded, but capable of nursing its own pain. I suspect this is where Noa Denmon comes in with the artwork that alludes to contemporary events, linking the poetry to something tangible, and thus ultimately malleable: the future in the reader’s hands.

For my Poetry Friday offering, I am sharing my favourite spread on love as I find it to be a benediction on the reader – and on a future that will be challenging and difficult, yes, but there is, and always will be, love.

And where there is love, there are “trees, sparrows, sunlight and the rain” – and blessings, a universe-ful of blessings. It is, indeed, a poem that heals the heart.