Eliza D Ankum

A Woman's Voice Eliza D Ankum

A Woman's Voice: A Little Book of Poems is a look inside my mind. First, as a young Black woman growing up in the Deep South during the time of White Only and For Coloreds signs. And the only work for a grown Black woman was as an Aunt Jemima, i.e., housemaid. My poem, The Breeze Through the Lilac Trees is an ode to my childhood memories of when my mother carted me along with her when she went 'visiting' her sisters or 'paying respect' when an old family friend had died. I soon noticed that everywhere we went, there were lilac trees. Pink lilac trees. Purple lilac trees. And even white lilac trees. Was it their way of signaling that their home was a place of safety in a cruel Whites Only world?My poem, My Mother's Garden, is about how my mother sustained our family of eight with her tiny vegetable garden. And even though we were desperately poor, and needed every pole bean, potato, and tomato she grew, she still made room for flowers. After making the transition from rural country life where I hardly ever saw a man other than my father, to the enthralling, vibrant, and sometimes violent streets of Chicago, there were new rules to learn as a young Black woman. Those things, I write about in the poems, Yellow Dresses, Evolve, and It's How I Knew He Didn't Love Me. Finally, I give voice to the screams of the Mothers of Murdered Sons in the poems, Sabrina (Trayvon Martin's mother) and I, Who Was Murdered. A Woman's Voice: A Little Book Of Poems is a little book, but it's a powerful book.