February is Black History Month

As part of Black History Month I would like to pay respects to two Black attorneys who have left their mark in CNMI history and a Black poet who has inspired me.

Attorney William Nabors, deceased, worked on settlement of the Micronesian War Claims and as counsel for the Northern Marianas District Legislature. Bill married Tinian representative Serafina King and their son, Karl King-Nabors, is currently serving in the CNMI Legislature as a senator representing Tinian. Attorney Joseph “Joe” Hill has practiced law in the CNMI for decades. He has also practiced law in Alaska, Japan, and Las Vegas, NV. Joe is still practicing law in Susupe and is a wealth of information and stories about the early days of the Commonwealth.

Countee Cullen, at the age of 22, published COLOR, his first collection of poetry in 1925. He was an acclaimed poet, accomplished essayist, translator, and novelist. My inspiration comes from a book: MY SOUL’S HIGH SONG, The Collected Writings of Countee Cullen, Voice of the Harlem Renaissance.

My February theme is love poems: Some borrowed and some are blue
Some old ones and several are new; wherever a variety of love roams.
“While nameless birds from grove and blossomed bend
Deluged my soul with song; if it were meet
To love Life so, then Love will but complete
My Joy, for Life with Love can never end.”
—Excerpt, From  Life To Love, by Countee Cullen, 1925.

To Todos Taotao Tinian with Love
(All my love for Rose M., Rosie L., Rosita K., kumaire Rose P. and all  the flowers, birds, families, nature on the beach, village, and field) 

Inspiration from ladies named Rose, roses for love, and Countee Cullen
Who wrote beautifully in his 20s of what heartstrings he was pulling
I’m 73 years of age and still enjoy writing sonnets and love poems
Losing my short-term memory but my long-term memory still roams
Typhoons and following rough seas have not been my good friend
Down many dusty coral roads I walk with rubber zoris on my feet
Flame tree flowers fall yet jungle gardenias still smell so so sweet
With bad knees jerking and more arthritic joints I bend
Birds sing in the boonies, butterflies , putitainobiu send
Messages to sweethearts whenever we chance to meet
A love for life, a love somewhat somehow incomplete
Where Platonic loving and longing will seldom ever end
The beauty of Tinian island among the best I’ve ever seen
From East to West coast with Marpo Valley in between.