The Year of the Poet XI November 2024

Foreword Renowned Poets: Wole Soyinka This month, The Year of the Poet features the inspiration of Wole Soyinka, a Nigerian poet, who said, "I don't know any other way to live but to wake up every day armed with my convictions, not yielding them to the threat of danger and to the power and force of people who might despise me." Every poet wakes up armed with their convictions, some of us do great and some are overcome by the challenges of the world but each morning we have a chance to start over with our convictions intact. We get to wake up to the world we dream of and work and write towards that. In the dark of night we can get discouraged but fortunately we have poets like Wole Soyinka to inspire us to yield and put our energy towards only that which feeds us and helps the world.

This volume of poetry is meant to pass along the inspiration we have received and share our ideas and dreams of a better world.

Here are some lines quilted together from several of Wole Soyinka's poems in a short Cento:

Conjure up a drawbridge of our desires, searing dark longings the wall of prayer has taken refuge of shuttered windows, I know the heart. the air will not deny you now roll your tongue in honey till your cheeks are Swarming honeycombs-your world needs sweetening, child.

As poets we speak up for ourselves to shape our dreams, building and overflowing into the world around us. We also push back on what we see in our neighborhoods that is not right or not helpful. As Wole Soyinka has said, "The greatest threat to freedom is the absence of criticism."

May we write until all are free and then continue writing to celebrate.

Kimberly Burnham author of Awakenings, Peace Dictionary, Language and the Mind, A Daily Brain Health Program https: //amzn.to/30hchpr Spokane, Washington