The theme for this issue of sub-scribe is border crossing. You might ask yourself “what does poetry have to do with crossing borders?” or “what does poetry have to do with challenging the status quo?” My answer would be, “poetry has everything to do with crossing borders. For poetry is a creative expression of the perpetually striving human spirit.”
Griot of the 20th century, W.E. B. Du Bois, explains that fundamentally we all want “to enjoy that anarchy of the spirit which is inevitably the goal of all consciousness.” Experiencing spiritual anarchy necessitates struggle, transcendence of not only one’s own personal barriers but also a desire to abolish the barriers suppressing the world in which we live. For none can truly know freedom in a society that is predicated on bondage.
For some poetry is a reflection of internal struggle, an honoring of personal triumphs and a mourning of personal defeats. For others poetry serves as a platform from which to make declarations and/or to challenge the borders of the world. But at its essence poetry is always about confronting a border, real or imagined, undertaking an obstacle, personal or universal, and declaring to the world (or oneself) defeat or victory.
—the Jr. Jali
“Each child is born a poet and every poet is a child”
—Piri Thomas
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