When it happened,
we were practitioners of stillness
contained in the silver sparkle of sunlight
we insisted that the day was red, a fire burning, asking for more
and we smiled too, bubbled, popped, re-formed
and we were pinned to one another like butterflies,
our mysteries contained in diaphanous wings
we walked in circles searching for the thing that broke us
we stood in the rain feeling our faith
we lived our lives in a colorful tangle, creating chameleons of ourselves
and we were a light singing and singing to itself in the darkness
and emerged clear and close and whole and together
and this is the way we came home to ourselves
Cynthia Amoah is a spoken word poet, educator, and mentor originally from Ghana. She completed her MFA at The New School where she was cited for Excellence in Poetry and has been featured on the stages of TEDxDrewUniversity, TEDxOhioStateUniversity, and the United Nations Information Center in Accra, among many. Cynthia's writing and performances often concern the foraging questions that have to do with identity and belonging, with displacement, migration and uprootedness. Her work has been published or is forthcoming in OURS Magazine, Nimrod Journal, Crab Orchard Review, and African Poetry Book Fund’s New-Generation African Poets Chapbooks by Akashic Books. Cynthia currently resides in Columbus, OH with her family where she facilitates workshops in poetry, positive-thinking, confidence-building, and the power of using our voice.