Poetic Tongues/Fabu
National Poetry Month and Poet Fabu
I love poetry and poetry loves me. I am sorry that I cannot say that I was in love and stayed married for decades, however, I can say that I have deeply loved poetry since I was twelve years old and we have never parted. When I was a young adult dreaming about life, I wanted a husband who would celebrate 50 years of happy marriage with me. Fifty seemed like the gold award to a successful relationship. Poetry and I earned the 50-year plus gold award, although truthfully there continue to be times of tension and strain.
Poetry is my way of being in the world, how I best engage, understand, respect and love people.
Poetry helps me express myself; first as the shy little girl who grew into an afro-wearing revolutionary and now I am an adult hoping the wisdom that I received from experiencing years of faith, joy, pain and loss, will sustain me as I grow older. My last decade of life was the worst in terms of health and the best in terms of poetry. My poetry performance at the Kennedy Center on May 25, 2025, was the apex of my poetry career thus far. I performed at the Mary Lou Williams festival in Washington D.C. accompanied by Mary Lou Williams’ original compositions played by pianist Jayne Renolds. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kvwXsREwMQs&t=10s
I started with discovering Mary Lou Williams in 1999, reading, and sharing her biography with my jazz loving dad. He raised me on this African American music when we lived in France. Creating original poetry that honored her and being a part of the Mary Lou Williams committee that celebrated her 100th birthday in 2010 by creating fifty-two events in Madison, was absolutely wonderful. The Mary Lou Williams committee gave me a research grant, and I traveled to several states to learn more about her, seeing where she lived and played piano, and best of all meeting and talking with members of her family.
All this research went into three books about Mary Lou Williams; the first on her life and music, the second on her creating a new genre of jazz called sacred jazz that beautifully combined her faith and her 60 years of playing all kinds of jazz, and my last book on this jazz genius focused on her love for children when I created a Mary Lou Williams coloring book. These three books are available free in Madison Public libraries or to purchase an autographed copy on my website. Artistfabu.com,
As a poet, I do not believe a poem is complete until it is performed and heard by an audience and the reactions they bring. Performance is both personal and intimate because you are sharing yourself with strangers. I tell you that poetry has loved me back because when a poem is finished, I feel a profound sense of contentment, that once again I have created words that “encourage, inspire and remind.” This is always my intention in writing and sharing my poetry.
Earlier I shared that there are times of tension and strain between poetry and me. This year started off with my need for physical convalescence and then dear Aunt Glenda Faye Askew Partee passed suddenly. My need to heal, convalescence, and the multiple stresses from injustice in America encroaching into every corner of life, I could not write. I could not write, yet writing is as necessary to me as staying healthy. I finally broke down and began writing every word I could use to describe Aunt Faye and how much I love this intellectual woman who taught in Memphis City School for 30 years, but more importantly taught all our family love, kindness, peace, and prayer. I am writing again and I congratulate not just other poets, but poetry lovers as well. Welcome to National Poetry month where you can uniquely speak through the beauty of poetry.