Dear Friends, Family and Fans,
Happy Juneteenth and Happy Father's Day!!!
It is wonderful that we celebrate Juneteenth... the final acknowledgment that enslaved descendants of Africa were officially freed from chattel slavery and Father’s Day at the same time. Enslaved women and men, who were considered property, were not protected from forced sexual cruelty. Our men could not stop the rape of their women without facing death and worse. But what they could do, what so many of them did, was to accept, in fact embrace the children born from that forced, diabolical act, as their own. What an act of love! As we celebrate Father’s Day, let’s offer a major shout out remembering our ancestors and those men who have stepped up over time and even today when the biological father is not in the picture. Thanks to the grandfathers, uncles, godfathers, brothers, family friends, step fathers and foster fathers who stepped in as fathers. Let’s honor them on this day. Let’s thank our Father who art in heaven for them.
Let’s all celebrate, honor, thank, appreciate these men who step up for the children. We are the village. Our children are our hope. Let’s raise our sons to know that they must take responsibility for their offspring whether they are with the mothers or not. Let’s raise our daughters so that they know they are worthy to be with men who love them and who will be responsible to the children they both co-create. Let’s all make clear to the men and women in our lives that abandoning a child is an act of violence against children.
Let’s celebrate our heritage by protecting, investing in, educating, unconditionally loving and ensuring that all of our children have both a mother and a father actively in their lives. That will make the most awesome Fathers Day.
To paraphrase Maya…we are the dream and the hope of the slaves…We rise! We rise! We rise! Let’s act like it today and everyday.
Love and realness,
#lindamichellebaron
www.mylindamichellebaron.com

Dear Friends, Family, and Fans,
Mother’s Day
My mother saved the Mother’s Day card I wrote for her when I was about eight years old. Hallmark would not have signed me up as one of their creative artists. Back then, decades ago, what I wrote was in no way special or indicative of a child prodigy. As I remember, it was a rather mundane rhyme about my mother being better than any other. Today there are those who recognize me as a poet. I celebrate my mother...always... but certainly during this season. I celebrate her for always seeing the best in me. I celebrate her for celebrating any light coming from my direction. I call myself a poet because she validated my very being. Now, I let that little light of mine shine every where I go. Her love made me believe in me. I thank God for mother love.
Many of us no longer have our mothers with us. Whether she is with us in person or not, in her honor let's see the light in others ..in the name of mother love... let's encourage all of us to shine.
Love and realness,
#lindamichellebaron www.mylindamichellebaron.com

Dear Friends, Family, and Fans,

I celebrate the first few months of the year with special connections. January…a day is dedicated in honor of the life of an American hero, Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. February, special focus on Black History along with recognition of the birth of icons, Langston Hughes and Rosa Parks. I also use the whole month as an opportunity to give special thanks to God for my birth. March, another opportunity to celebrate phenomenality…Woman’s History Month. And now April, Poetry month.
This April, all month long I shared with you some of my favorite published and unpublished poems. I have enjoyed sharing with you this month. My books captures most of my poems. To get your own copies of my books visit my website at:
https://www.mylindamichellebaron.com/.../Featured...
​
Would you like me to light a spark at your school, college, house-of-worship, conference or organization? If your answer is yes, please click on this link to book me: https://www.mylindamichellebaron.com/book-dr...

I invite all of us to celebrate the power and prescience of poetry. I welcome each of us and our children to read, memorize and recite poems that connect with our lives, bring us joy, and an opportunity to reflect. I have posted the “Poetic License” that is also included in the back of two collections of my poetry dedicated to young people, “The Sun Is On: Poetry and Ideas,” and “Rhythm & Dues: Poetry and Ideas.”
​Poetize yourselves!
Love and realness,
#lindamichellebaron
www.mylindamichellebaron.com

Dear Friends, Family, and Fans,

I wrote Just Push in the 1980's and yet still, in 2022 there are those who hold children down with their low expectations. We must ensure that our children capitalize on their strengths, resilience and cultural capital. Let's do as Gholdy Muhammad's book exhorts us to do and cultivate their genius.

Day 28: Just Push
By Dr. Lindamichellebaron
One day the teacher walked us to the room.
The door was closed, the keys inside.
The teacher tried the door,
but it didn't open. We waited until he got another key. That's when he realized it was open all along. All he had to do was push.
Sometimes,
I think he does us the same way.
Has us waiting, while he looks for the key of knowledge, to let us in, when really, all he has to do is give us a little push by just thinking...
we can.

Just Push is one of my favorite poems from my book "The Sun is On." For more of my poems, please get your own copy of my book "The Sun is On" on my website at:
https://www.mylindamichellebaron.com/.../THE_SUN_IS_ON...
​
Hope you enjoyed Day 28. Would you like me to light a spark at your school, college, house-of-worship, conference or organization? If your answer is yes, please click on this link to book me: https://www.mylindamichellebaron.com/book-dr...
Love and realness,
#Lindamichellebaron
www.mylindamichellebaron.com

Dear Friends, Family, and Fans,

Day 27: They Are Our Children
Copyright Lindamichellebaron 2018

Prelude to They are Our Children...
please, when we look at children... not looking as we want them to look... love, regard and respect them anyway. There is more to them then what you see and if times more than they even know. If not by blood, then by our collective responsibility... they are our children.
​
Day 27: They Are Our Children
By Dr. Lindamichellebaron
Pants below their rear
Their eyes wear a blank stare
They don’t seem to care
So why should we?
It’s our job…not just a job…they are our children.
The language they use is crude
Their behavior is beyond rude
The girls come to school half nude
They do not seem to care
So why should we?
It’s our job…not just a job…they are our children.
They refuse to pay attention.
They don’t seem to fear suspension
They don’t even care about retention
They just don’t seem to care,
So why should we?
It’s our job…not just a job…they are our children.
They are perpetually mad
They are always ready to “jump bad”
Where is their mom or dad?
They’re not here; if they don’t care
Then why should we?
It’s our job… not just a job…they are our children.
Together, the collective we, you and me…
Lift up our children
Lift them beyond their hard façade
Beyond the mask they wear to hide their fear
Lift them up with our collective care.
It’s our job…not just a job…they are our children
It’s our job… not just a job…they are our children.
They Are Our Children is one of my favorite poems from my treasure trove of poems. Hope you enjoyed Day 27. Would you like me to light a spark at your school, college, house-of-worship, conference or organization? If your answer is yes, please click on this link to book me: https://www.mylindamichellebaron.com/book-dr...
Love and realness,
#Lindamichellebaron
www.mylindamichellebaron.com

Dear Friends, Family, and Fans,
This is a more recent poem I wrote trying to help my pre-service educators understand the concept of having and cultivating a "Growth Mindset."

Day 27: The Power of Yet
Copyright: Lindamichellebaron, 2021

I’m not as good as I can get
I’m not perfect
At least, not yet.
I’m not born smart, but you can bet
I can be a scholar,
I’m just not yet
I can’t see my gifts, but I don’t fret
I got this
I just don’t “got it” yet.
What I can be has not been set
Its up to me
And I’ll get it yet!
It may take time and a little sweat
But it soon come.
I believe in “yet.”
​
Hope you enjoyed Day 27. Would you like me to light a spark at your school, college, house-of-worship, conference or organization? If your answer is yes, please click on this link to book me: https://www.mylindamichellebaron.com/book-dr...
Love and realness,
#Lindamichellebaron
www.mylindamichellebaron.com

Dear Friends, Family, and Fans,
This is another poem, that never made it into a book. I wrote it almost 20 years ago. It actually recounts what I remember of an event when I was about 10 or 12 years old. I believe in telling the truth. My mother reinforced truth telling by promising not to punish us if we told the truth. She would question our assertions by with “Scout’s Honor?” To which I would respond. “Scout’s Honor.” I was never an a scout, but I took that oath seriously. But one day, I was caught off guard. I did something that I didn’t want to confess to. I had taken one of the dimes, designated for drying the clothes at the laundry and bought a Ring Ding instead. The loss of the additional 10 minutes of drying time made a difference. The clothes were not completely dry. I took them back to the house, figuring, I guess, no one would notice. When questioned, the truth was not in me. I later confessed in a letter asking forgiveness. I remember that experience to this day, and it informs my decisions to tell “the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help me God.”

Day 25: TO TELL THE TRUTH
Copyright 1993 Dr. Lindamichellebaron

My mother always says, “Do not tell fibs.”
She says, “Fibs only multiply.”
I was telling the truth at first.
I don’t know how it turned into a lie.

She asked me a simple question,
Then when I started to say,
A piece of the truth fell out of the story,
And then it got away.

So, there was this space in the story
That I had to find a way to fill,
And a half-truth popped into it,
Totally against my will.

So then I had to twist the story,
Move it around, just a little bit,
But when I tried to tell it,
An un-truth was the only truth that fit.

I really can’t explain it,
How right before my eyes,
The truth I know I should tell
Kept turning into lies.

Feel all tangled up,
Like I’m lassoed, gagged and tied.
I just want to say, “I’m sorry Mommy.”
And tell her, “The real truth is I lied.”

TO TELL THE TRUTH is one of my favorite poems from my treasure trove of poems.

Hope you enjoyed Day 25. Would you like me to light a spark at your school, college, house-of-worship, conference or organization? If your answer is yes, please click on this link to book me: https://www.mylindamichellebaron.com/book-dr-lindamichelle.html

Love and realness,
#Lindamichellebaron
www.mylindamichellebaron.com

Dear Friends, Family, and Fans,
Today's poem Is part 2 of 2 favorite poems of mine.
Day 24:
YES I'M TALKING TO YOU Part 2
Yes, I'm talking to you. I hear your brags, and I see your name-brand rags. You're obviously money obsessed, but I'm not impressed. Yes, I'm talking to you.
It's clear to me, you're a serious dude. I can hear your attitude. I have absolutely no doubt that you can take me out. But yes, I'm talking to you.
I know you never raise your voice. Weapons are your words of choice... a gun, machete, your fist, a knife, or one of your "dawgs" could take my life. But-yes, I'm talking to you.
I'm taking the risk because it's possible that I am partially responsible. might have missed the beat
that could have kept you off the street. Maybe you needed a different interaction, and I was present but missing in action. I don't know what has occurred.
I know I spoke, but who knows what So, yes, I'm talking to you. you heard?
Yes, I'm talking to you.
But I don't know what to say.
Can we talk?

YES, I'M TALKING TO YOU is one of my favorite poems from my book,"For The Love of Life" available on my website at:
https://www.mylindamichellebaron.com/store/p9/FOR_THE_LOVE_OF_LIFE_Life_Lyrics_from_an_Oral_Tradition_Third_Edition__NEW_EXPANDED_EDITION.html

Hope you enjoyed Day 24. Would you like me to light a spark at your school, college, house-of-worship, conference or organization? If your answer is yes, please click on this link to book me: https://www.mylindamichellebaron.com/book-dr-lindamichelle.html
Love and realness,
#Lindamichellebaron
www.mylindamichellebaron.com

Dear Friends, Family, and Fans,

Today's poem is part 1 of 2 favorite poems of mine.
Day 23: YOU TALKING TO ME? Part 1

You talking to me?
You trying to buy me with lollipops? I can buy and sell you and still pay the cops. You're asking me how old am I? Ask your mama, unless you want to die.
You talking to me?
I'm "old enough." so don't ask my age. What I make in a week beats your whole year's wage. When I go out, it's not to play. Go ahead mess with me and make my day.
You talking to me?
Don't even think about my size. I carry something that will equalize. I'm not worried about being tall. My game ain't about no basketball.
You talking to me?
I don't talk loud
I don't have to shout If I don't like how you look I just take you out
Nah,
you're not talking to me!!!
YOU TALKING TO ME is one of my favorite poems from my book,"For The Love of Life" available on my website at:
https://www.mylindamichellebaron.com/.../FOR_THE_LOVE_OF...
Hope you enjoyed Day 23. Please come back tomorrow for part 2.
Would you like me to light a spark at your school, college, house-of-worship, conference or organization? If your answer is yes, please click on this link to book me: https://www.mylindamichellebaron.com/book-dr...
Love and realness,
#Lindamichellebaron
www.mylindamichellebaron.com