one and twenty days
thoughts tick mercilessly
mocking my mind unceasingly
each hour searches increasingly
minutes second-guess me so easily
every trace of time misses you.
ava wood
Poem, Day 5
What a difference a day makes—for better or for worse. Happenings months ago inspired this piece and since then my emotions have come full circle and are now tilting toward one-eighty. Funny how time does that.
Poem, Day 4
Give it a real go.
Give it everything you got.
And give it some time.
ava wood
♦
This month, on April 27, I’ll mark nine years since the idea for the Giving Back Project seized upon me while attending a philanthropy conference in Seattle.
If nothing else, this journey of nearly 3285 days has taught me the three points composing the haiku above, which was posted in observance of National Poetry Month. So when you choose to pursue something meaningful, dream big, prepare well, go hard…and hang on tight for the dizzying roller coaster ride! — VF
Poem, Day 3
Nearly ran out of time today, so I’m re-blogging this poem titled “Passage” from 2014. Enjoy!
Never feels quite right
Too long bundled and uptight,
like a Nubian entombed or plainest Mennonite.
Tension risen, watch the bite
Mind churning, so burst it might.
Eternal tunnel absent a whisper of light
Sun conceded to perpetual night.
Well-plumbed valleys, nary a heavenly height
Nearly convinced no mercy in sight
Then, I write.
— Ava Wood
There she goes again. And why not, it’s National Poetry Month!
Poem, Day 2
In 2008, I commissioned longtime friend and poet Quentin “Q” Talley to create a group performance piece for a community philanthropy conference. Later, he refined it and then came and delivered it at one of my giving circle‘s planning retreats. It was 2009 or 2010 when I asked Q to edit the poem for inclusion in the book I was writing. Now Full Circle is featured using kinetic typography in Giving Back: The Soul of Philanthropy Reframed and Exhibited. Delighted to share it here again for National Poetry Month!
To hear Q recite his poem, listen here.
Poem, Day 1
Originally posted on 4 April 2013
Today is the first day of National Poetry Month! In fact, this April marks the 20th anniversary of National Poetry Month, which was inaugurated by the Academy of American Poets in 1996. It has grown to become the “largest literary celebration in the world with schools, publishers, libraries, booksellers and poets celebrating poetry’s vital place in our culture.”
To join in the celebration, new and favorite poems will post here throughout April—possibly every day! I call my poetical alter ego Ava Wood and plan to tap into that voice to produce new poems this month. Each year, I relish the challenge of creating poetry, like the haiku above and like this and this and this. — VF
Witness God’s green work
Entrust your seed to the earth
Bloom, bloom, blossom burst
— ava wood
May I call you friend?
You’ve earned a name sweeter than,
dearer than weekend.
— Ava Wood
National Poetry Month draws out my poetical alter ego every time.
WRITE ON Q! A poem from Giving Back, as National Poetry Month continues!
Gave away my soul.
Giving back to get it back.
Given what I know.
Ava Wood
Today is the last day of National Poetry Month and year-round I love sharing bits of poetry that were inked for Giving Back, hence the haiku above. After considerable consternation, I granted myself license while writing Giving Back to begin exploring and eventually exhibiting my poetic sensibilities. The experience has been liberating and, at times, disorienting. Stepping out of your comfort zone and eschewing safety nets can be just as scary as it sounds. Nevertheless, I have chosen the high-wire act of expressing myself more freely as a writer, as a poet, as a public speaker and in various facets of my life. Some might call these acts, self-determination.
I have learned that setting inflexible frames about how things are “supposed to be” based on others’ rules and measures is limiting. As is clutching too tight to the unessential. These and a string of other epiphanies are revealed in my recent TEDx Talk, A Picture Reframed.
One week ago, a story on Ebony.com—the online version of EBONY Magazine—re-stirred my thinking about the concept of self-determination and the word license.
‘Young Black Philanthropist’ Is Not an Oxymoron is a piece written by Ebonie Johnson Cooper, a thought leader on African American millennial giving and civic engagement. In her Ebony.com story, Ebonie recounts an unexpected conversation that left her troubled, momentarily. It was one in which a woman questioned broad application of the word philanthropist and chastised use of the term for givers deemed of average or modest means. Philanthropy as exclusive domain for the wealthy is, alas, a still widely held belief.
Etymologically, philanthropy is about love. Ironically, most folks believe it’s only about money. The word is derived from philos, Greek for “loving” in the sense of benefiting, caring for, nourishing. So rather than bastardizing a word, as suggested by Ebonie’s inquisitor, we are in fact reclaiming the word and returning it to its root meaning—love. Philanthropy literally means “love of humanity,” as in caring about what it is to be human.
As Ebonie found out, work in the field of philanthropy often brings one in proximity to a preponderance of people who exhibit a pronounced preoccupation with all things pecuniary and of position, power and privilege. Peculiar perhaps, but in the realm of endowments and grantmaking there are those who behave as if endowed with super-human power and thus proceed passionately as grantors of status, licensors of labels, keepers of community gates and authorizers of civic value.
Convoluted social constructs and hierarchies, in the name of philanthropy, do not warrant investment. For me, philanthropy encompasses simpler kinds of kindness, generic acts of generosity and humility amidst concern for humanity—all the while being no less thoughtful, strategic or transformative. Love is plain, yet potent that way.
Ebonie and I and others are part of a new generation of philanthropists that spans generations, race, class, position, income and wealth. It includes members of Community Investment Network who are giving, collectively, through giving circles. It includes Laura Arrillaga-Andreessen, author of Giving 2.0, a book that makes a case about the future of philanthropy and how “individuals of every age and income level can harness the power of technology, collaboration, innovation, advocacy, and social entrepreneurship to take their giving to the next level and beyond.” It includes Asian Americans/Pacific Islanders in Philanthropy (AAPIP) which is “building democratic philanthropy.” And it can include you.
Ebonie made the case this way in her story:
“The more mirrors we see of ourselves as grassroots organizers, board members, and financial donors, the more we will be able to accept our place as modern-day philanthropists who look into our own communities and define for ourselves who we are and what needs to be done. If we don’t, someone else certainly will.”
True. Case in point, absent from tables in U.S. philanthropy are a representative share of African Americans, because we co-sign and are thus co-opted by a corrupted translation of philanthropist. As a community, African Americans have yet to tap our fullest power by determining ourselves assets within our communities, vital players in ending inequities and, yes, philanthropists. While we are free to claim ourselves philanthropists, ultimately the label is unimportant. It is care-full work, sustained generosity and a love of people that characterize a philanthropist.
Haiku introduces this piece and the poet shares what she’s come to know, the hard way. I am hopeful that we all will soon come to know the power of loving, understanding and respecting what it means to be human. At its essence, philanthropy requires no license, labels or limits.
— VF
dazed by days of prose
april comes showering poems
state reversed by verse
April is National Poetry Month! I’ve always had a thing for poetry—reading it, hearing it, writing it and savoring it. So, I am forever grateful that Giving Back opened a new opportunity for me to evoke and express my poetical alter ego…my own “Sasha Fierce”…my bolder voice that I (sometimes) call Ava Wood.
Above is haiku she/I/we composed today for the occasion, with more like this and this and this to come. — VF
valaida 