Kwame Alexander

A breathtaking poetry collection on hope, heart, and heritage from the most prominent and promising Black poets and writers of our time, edited by #1 New York Times bestselling author Kwame Alexander. In this comprehensive and vibrant poetry anthology, bestselling author and poet Kwame Alexander curates a collection of contemporary anthems at turns tender and piercing and deeply inspiring throughout. Featuring work from well-loved poets such as Rita Dove, Jericho Brown, Warsan Shire, Ross Gay, Tracy K. Smith, Terrance Hayes, Morgan Parker, and Nikki Giovanni, This Is the Honey is a rich and abundant offering of language from the poets giving voice to generations of resilient joy, “each incantation,” as Mahogany L. Browne puts it in her titular poem, is “a jubilee of a people dreaming wildly.” This essential collection, in the tradition of Dudley Randall’s The Black Poets and E. Ethelbert Miller’s In Search of Color Everywhere, contains poems exploring joy, love, origin, race, resistance, and praise. Jacqueline A.Trimble likens “Black woman joy” to indigo, tassels, foxes, and peacock plumes. Tyree Daye, Nate Marshall, and Elizabeth Acevedo reflect on the meaning of “home” through food, from Cuban rice and beans to fried chicken gizzards. Clint Smith and Cameron Awkward-Rich enfold us in their intimate musings on love and devotion. From a “jewel in the hand” (Patricia Spears Jones) to “butter melting in small pools” (Elizabeth Alexander), This Is the Honey drips with poignant and delightful imagery, music, and raised fists. Fresh, memorable, and deeply moving, this definitive collection a must-have for any lover of language and a gift for our time.

An Anthology of Contemporary Black Poets

This Is the Honey

Lindsay

-"This Is the Honey" - Mahogany L. Browne

There is no room on this planet for anything less than a miracle

- "As Serious as a Heart Attack" - Kalamu ya Salaam

You know I’m dead is that I seem to bow to you

- "Black Gold Redux (for Nina Simone)" - Jacqueline Johnson

An unfettered falcon without fear of flight

-"Quality: Gwendolyn Brooks at 73" - Haki R. Madhubuti

life after seven decades plus three years

is a lot of breathing. seventy three years on this

earth is a lot of taking in and giving out, is a

life of coming from somewhere and for many a bunch

This Is the Honey quotes

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