Indiana Poet Creates Empathy & Connection Through Perception-Changing Verse

Indiana State poet Aisha Tariqa Abdul Haqq, has a moving message for her community and country in her powerful new Indiana poetry book about inequality. Go to https://www.aishatariqa.com/landing-page to find out more.

poverty Americans call year

poverty Americans call year

Indiana Poet Creates Empathy & Connection
Through Perception-Changing Verse
Young poet Aisha Tariqa Abdul Haqq
wants to know if you’ve ever stopped
to wonder what it might actually be
like to be poor, or to be homeless.
How you would suffer, struggle and
fight just to survive another day. 
That's why her new poetry book,
titled 'Acres of Shadow', serves as a
startling wake-up call, showing you
the levels of entrenched poverty and
suffering that exist in one of the
wealthiest countries in the world.
The book's release comes with
the annual census figures,
which reveal that this year
there are now over 37.2 million
Americans living in poverty.
These census findings also showcase
that the number of Americans who are
below the poverty line increases every
year. And, with the dramatic rise in
inflation witnessed in the first quarter of
2022, it is projected that these numbers
are set to balloon.
As both a poet and an alum of Earlham
College and Indiana University who studied
nonprofit management and the social
sciences with a focus on poverty theory,
Aisha Tariqa wants you to know that there
is a class of generationally and chronically
impoverished Americans.
She hopes that her poetry book,
'Acres of Shadow' will highlight the
plights of what some sociologists
coin "the undeserving poor" and
alter your perception of the
impoverished.
Her heartfelt and passionate position
is depicted in forceful terms that show
that the scant absence of money,
which she calls our lifeblood, inflicts
those affected by it with years, and
sometimes, a lifetime of undeviating
pain. 
More sterling verse is on
display in the following extract
from one of her new book’s
featured poems, called ‘On
Homelessness’.
“The question mark back of the bewildered
disturbs any present moment expectations of
joy / An outstretched hand for giving, have I / I
have nothing myself / But these solitary
moments / They are all that I own / They, the
men and women of ill / Carry alongside the
turbulence of their lives..."
"...A gait that is wafting just above
the slight touch of concrete / The
heaviness of their footsteps / I aim to
listen to their breathing / Their
labored breathing / Oh, the journeys
they carry upon their souls..."
Go to
https://www.aishatariqa.co
m/landing-page to find out
more.