Name: How Far You Have Come
ISBN: 9780310456599

Morgan Harper Nichols

As popular Instagram poet and artist Morgan Harper Nichols shares glimpses of her story in How Far You Have Come, she inspires us to reframe the stories we tell ourselves so we can see through our own brokenness to the beauty inside.

Musings on Beauty and Courage

How Far You Have Come

Erin Darlyn

Morgan has become one of my favorite poetic authors this year. I first read her All Along You Were Blooming, then picked up a copy of How Far You Have Come after I loved the other so much. 

This volume is beautiful. It is a collection of place-based poetry interspersed with reflective narrative sections, and the whole book is filled with Morgan’s beautiful illustrations. As a native Californian, I especially loved reading the California section, but I also found myself dog-earing pages all throughout the book so I could revisit my favorite poems later on. 

Here are a couple of stanzas that stood out to me as I read:

 “Invite joy to
 meet your sorrow.
 Let in hope
 for tomorrow.
 Bridge the fragments
 of who you are,
 and learn to see
 beauty in your scars.”

 “You will desire to go
 beyond the limits
 to get there faster.
 But moving at a careful pace
 requires courage in this race,
 as if to say
 time does not define me,
 I do not answer to the tick of the clock
 and will not give in to its alluring tongue.
 In my own speed,
 with my own limits,
 I am still becoming.”

 “Come back down
 to the beat of your heart.
 Come back to the joy of color.
 Come back home to believing 
 hope still runs in your veins.
 You’re finding your way
 in the wind,
 but you can always come
 back to Light again.”

Highly recommend, and while you’re at it, pick up All Along You Were Blooming too. I liked that one even better, to the point that I wanted to buy an extra two copies so I could turn the pages into a collection of framed art prints for my walls. I still might do just that! =)

How Far You Have Come Musings on Beauty and Courage

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