04/02/2026
Dear Poet,
Before history was written, it was spoken.
Carried in breath. Held in memory. Guarded in voice.
You come from that lineage.
From griots who refused to forget.
From truth tellers who spoke when silence was safer.
From those who held the story of a people when the world tried to rewrite it.
Poetry has never been decoration.
It has always been witness.
It names what others avoid.
It remembers what others erase.
It reflects us back to ourselves; whole, fractured, beautiful, still here.
It has carried the sound of freedom before it arrived.
It has held the weight of injustice and still found language for hope.
And now, it lives in you.
What you write matters.
What you see matters.
What you refuse to stay quiet about matters.
So write.
Write like memory depends on it.
Write like truth is still being decided.
Write like the future is listening.
Share your poem with us.
Let it speak.
Let it stand.
Let it be part of the story we are still becoming.
Cape May County NAACP
