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Write an abecedarian after Evie Shockley’s “tonight i saw” poem. Focus on an image that inspires you. Depict 26 thoughts, feelings, and sensations that follow the sight and/or thought of this image in 26 lines, each starting with a different letter of the alphabet. Let these 26 lines be fragmented images that come together to form the most vivid depiction of your inspiring image. This image may be a person, place, or thing. Or a specific thing about a specific person, such as Lynn Whitfield’s smile in Evie Shockley’s “tonight i saw.” What color is this image? What feelings does it evoke? Is it blue or New England autumn-colored? Does it make you feel pleasant? Does it make you numb? Does it stop time or heartbeats? Find ways of expressing this in fragmented images that fit together to form a greater, clearer image. Find ways to call upon things by other names. Invent new ways to say mother, lover, rain, sea, heat, heart, home, hate. Let each line be a brush stroke that works towards the illustration of this awe-inspiring image.

5 Books of Poetry that Examine Diasporas and Displacement

1. The January Children by Safia Elhillo

2. Citizen Illegal by Jose Olivarez

3. Black Movie by Danez Smith

4. Whereas by Layla Long Soldier

5. When I Grow Up I Want to Be a List of Further Possibilities by Chen Chen