Portrait of Harriet Tubman

My daughter’s picture after reading about Harriet Tubman.

It’s almost National/Global Poetry Writing Month! I’m planning on following daily prompts from a variety of sources for the next month. Last year

Tara Connor

rallied all of us on Substack, using the prompts from NaPoWriMo.net. It was wonderful.

Today I’m using the “early bird” prompt (full post from NaPoWriMo.net here):

“Maybe one of the most common subjects in art is a portrait – a painting of one, singular person. Portrait poems are also very common. To get a sense of the breadth of style and form that these poems can take, take a look at Anni Liu’s prose poem, “Portrait Of,” John Yau’s, “Portrait,” and Karl Kirchwey’s “The Red Portrait.” Now try penning a portrait poem of your own. It can be a self-portrait, a portrait of someone well known to you, or even a poem inspired by an actual painted portrait. (If you’re looking for one to inspire you, why not check out the online collection of the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery?)” I used this portrait of Harriet Tubman.

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I used to read about Harriet Tubman
during “Silent Sustained Reading” 
or as us kids liked to call it
“Sit Down, Shut Up, and Read.”

She and Annie Sullivan were my frequent focus:
people who found other people in the dark
and led them to any kind of light.

She fell asleep a lot, my little daughter wrote
after reading a book about Harriet Tubman.
Yet she was more awake than most, her portrait's gaze
the gaze of greatness. 

I imagine a pink eraser descending
petty and punishing, trying to make her face a blur
trying to gray out the black and white truth:
people bought and sold other people. 
People bought and sold other people. 

Harriet opened the iron door
and set slaves free. That fact
they can never erase.