Sister Series 2020

Last year, I felt pulled to start a poetry series in alignment with International Women’s Day, titled Sister Series. In this series, I wrote poems with some specific women in mind, depicting past solely their skin, rather, penning about the beauty within their soul.

I felt a similar pull this year. When I went to go write these poems, I became overwhelmed with gratitude, for I’ve had the opportunity to become acquainted and know so many women over the past year. I decided to write every name I knew in a jar and picked out a few. Over the next month, I will be sharing these works with you.

While these poems were penned with specific women in mind—you will see your mother, your sister, your friend, maybe even yourself—in these poems. I want to encourage you to share these words with them, or even write a few of your own.

This first poem comes from a time I visited Ohio before I moved here for the second time; I was in the Columbus Museum of Art and started weeping for the people here. That’s the moment I knew that Ricky and I would move back here, and naturally, was the perfect poem to start off this series.

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Kindred

by Regan Smith

• • •

I walk through art galleries and weep, 
the paper and paint is beautiful, 
but these humans inhabiting this space
are what take my breath away. 

I see you be moved by an art piece, 
emotions emerging to the surface, 
until they’re shown on your skin. 

My heart is tied to yours, and 
with every atom, I can feel 
when you ache–when you have joy,
my heart soars alongside yours. 

And although today we may be strangers, 
our eyes link for a second,
and that scintillating moment
reminds us that we are sisters.

Samantha

This poem is a part of the Sister Series, a series of celebrating individual women and sharing their beauty through poetry.

Samantha

by Regan Smith

She is
the morning air
holding a purity
the crisp beauty.

She is so deeply loved,
one that overflows
so heavily
it sinks the others
that surround her.

She never runs empty.

She holds a
hummingbird heart:
always bringing hope
always bringing grace,
always beating.

Annabelle

This poem is a part of the Sister Series, a series of celebrating individual women and sharing their beauty through poetry.

Annabelle

By Regan Smith

Bright red lips,
beneath the summer sky;
her children–
two sweet girls,
hair tied in otter buns,
explore the earth,
their friendship,
their sisterhood.

The boy with round cheeks,
bounces on her hip;
how can a newborn child
be filled with such joy?

She sits on the grass,
and pulls her baby boy closer.
the sun beams on
the nape of her neck
as she listens to the words
spoken within.

Her gentle voice
she uses to call to her children,
her partner,
is a voice full of power.

When she herself was created
in the womb of her mother,
gifts were woven into her very fibers:
her strength found in softness,
passion for justice,
and love love love for the
hurting hearts around her.

She is a child of the most high–
the daughter of Compassion,
Tenderness, and above all
Love.

Rachel

This poem is a part of the Sister Series, a series of celebrating individual women and sharing their beauty through poetry.

Rachel

By Regan Smith

She will be known for her beauty,
her tenderness;
a floodlight is bursting within,
illuminating even the darkest corners;
for where others won’t go,
she will.

Oh how the city can be cold,
but is softened by the wave of
compassion and encouragement.

Peach and pinks now light up
the night, for not even the stars
could create this alchemy.

But she won’t dwell on her
internal strength,
rather is drawn into the
eternal promises.

Raine

This poem is a part of the Sister Series, a series of celebrating individual women and sharing their beauty through poetry.

Raine

by Regan Smith

I was stepping on stones
across a river, when I found you.

Within the cattails along the bank,
you pulled their cotton seeds and watched
how the wind would carry them.

It was as though you were
soaking in neoteric nostalgia,
longing for this present tense
to linger a bit longer.

The weeping willows swayed praise
and the cotton seeds danced
softly within the air,
catching the light just right.

It was a gift for you,
and I saw the bliss behind your eyes.
Not even the river could match
your heart within
that moment.

Charlotte

This poem is a part of the Sister Series, a series of celebrating individual women and sharing their beauty through poetry.

charlotte

by Regan Smith

Standing in San Francisco,
one can’t say one’s head is in the clouds,
when it’s fog that’s covering the earth.

She sees through this,
standing in truth.

The wind tousles her hair,
bu she is unwavering.

Full of life and color,
she is a contrast to the grey.
She is a fern.

She stays calm,
and composed.

Though her spirit is sprightly,
she stays taciturn in speech,
for her posture speaks it all–
such elegance in her:  
strength, power, composure.