March – Month of Shapeshifting 

All over California, blossoms and snowflakes have been mingling, surprising us with their fragile beauty. Winter and Spring are competing. Abruptly shifting. Rain, hail, gusting winds, thunder, lightning, snow, sun, flocks of birds... This morning I wonder why my deck is so slippery. Touching the wood, I realize that a very thin invisible layer of ice is covering the boards. This has me moving slowly. Delightful crisp air. My old plum tree still vibrant with blossoms. Beneath white petals covering the ground, a different kind of snow. Transformation is in the air. And poetry...

        once a snowflake fell 

        on my brow and i loved 

        it so much and i kissed 

        it and it was happy and called its cousins 

        and brothers and a web 

        of snow engulfed me then 

        i reached to love them all 

        and i squeezed them and they became 

        a spring rain and i stood perfectly 

        still and was a flower                             

 

        “Winter Poem” by Nikki Giovanni, 1996  

 

Nikki Giovanni (born 1943) – a renown African American poet, writer, activist and educator – is a living legend, also called “the Princess of Black Poetry.” Her work includes anthologies, recordings, and nonfiction essays, covering topics ranging from race and social issues to children's literature. Thirty years ago, admiring Nikki’s poetry and spirit, I would bring her poems (and that of many other women poets) into prison – as inspiration for the women in my weekly classes as a volunteer. As a form of resistance.