I wrote my first I Am From Poem three years ago as an assignment for one of my counseling courses. The I Am From poem is a literary snapshot of the poet’s life. Sometimes lending character, shape, and credence to ordinary but profound objects and moments in a poet’s lived experience. Here is mine- filled with love, honor, and remembrance for the land and the people that encapsulate home. I dedicate this poem to everything and everyone who shaped my being.

I Am From

I am from a place where my elders healed with red dirt and took everything to God in prayer.

African.

Creole.

Free.

Enslaved.

Delta.

Bayou and place of pearls.

I descend from those people.

I am from the land of Clinton and the Little Rock Nine.

I am from big Sunday dinners, black patent leather shoes, baby doll socks, and pink roller in my bangs.

My people taught me to follow my first mind and rest during a thunderstorm. I was taught to be quiet because the Lord was doing his work. I am from that place.

I am from Julia, Savannah, Ann, and Francis. They gave me my hair, my skin, my personality, and my womaness.

I am from sweet potato pie, okra, greens, hot water cornbread and how y’all doing.

If you asked me what I learned from them I’d sum it like this: Be quiet and watch for snakes and haints. Ain’t that crazy? But that’s who they were.

I am also from freeza cups, penny candy, church scholarship, Giordano’s pizza and Act-So competition.

I am momma, sista, auntie, wife and friend.

I am from people who made a way out of no way. I am from a place that never leaves my spirit.

Iowa Writers Collaborative Roundup

Linking readers and professional writers who care about Iowa.

By Julie Gammack