For Mrs. Davis-Williams (Previously entitled “Namings”)

You shared
that an author is the sum
of his own voices
that a child’s ramblings
wrinkle time
that a young poet’s words
are testaments to wisdom
and I trusted your reading.

You were a librarian after all.
You, with that every-womam smile.

I was an honored book
uncertain of my pages.
Yet to trust the voices
narrating my story.

You did.

Namings (Original)

As I read adolescent poems

You read me.
Professed that an author is the sum
of his own voices.

I trusted your reading.
You were a librarian after all.
I, an honored book
yet to turn his own pages.
Yet to hear the voices
possessing my stories

You did.
Told me Angelou
was my mother

as I recited stories
that were not yet my own

You, with that every-woman smile,
read a collection of namings
in mine

Thank you for reading. I enjoy the revision process but it is also infuriating sometimes. Please help me out by commenting with the title of the poem you like the most. Thanks!