Dasha Kelly Hamilton –“The Library”

“The Library” | Dasha Kelly Hamilton

Bend pages at the corner Folding into the stories We tell about ourselves About each other About days dissolved and seasons yet to come

Circulate riches to every spirit and spine Stack rhyme schemes and prophecy Humanity and hypotheses Guard our stories, stretching from soil to sky Common and crown, ground level to grand heights And all of our mass in the middle Mass, in the middle The accumulated weight of all our question marks Our catalog of anxious cells and eager breaths

Warm the hallways, the portals and platforms Ignite hope along dim landscapes Archive the shine of our collective living Our electric resistance to darkness

Poet Laureate of both the state of Wisconsin and the city of Milwaukee, Dasha Kelly Hamilton is the first ever writer to hold those posts concurrently. A writer, performance artist and creative change agent, Hamilton appliesthe creative process to facilitate dialogues around human and social wellness. She is the author of two novels, three poetry collections, four spoken word albums, and one collection of personal vignettes. She performed a reading of her work in February, 2022, at UWL.