Musings from Copenhagen

Say it loud! poetry collective's last reading at Copenhagen's Main Library
which was fire. featuring Ayun (Angola)
Julia (Mozambique, Denmark), Zanubia (Somalia, Denmark) & myself. So proud of these poets. 

I'm so thankful for my life - and the many opportunities that I continue to attract. I've deactivated my Facebook account as it's not conducive (for me, anyway!) to have it while I finish up the first draft of my book Decolonial Daughter: Letters from a Black mother to her European Son and I've had a few folks reach out, worried, "Lesley! Are you okay?" they ask, "I don't see your posts anymore!" It's sweet whenever I hear this - I've always had a complicated relationship with Facebook but it wasn't always like that. In the beginning, Facebook was the shizzle.  But like all good things, it got so pimped out by capitalism. Le sigh.  Also, my algorithms compute to political doom, because my newsfeed was just feeding me back my dystopian view of the world.  Talk about thoughts manifesting  itself. Magic is real, yo.

Part of the process of writing this book has meant going through my dozens of journals - an olympian feat in and of itself. This reflection is humbling - it has revealed to me how fast I tend to move. My animal totem lately is the turtle- I need to slow down. I've also included some more healthy habits into my life and enjoying more quiet. The other day I visited a friend who lives on one of Denmark's many islands, and it was so beautiful. No matter how old I am I will always be fascinated by nature and the Danish countryside, like all other parts of the world where nature is left to her own devices, is remarkable. I look forward to spending more time with her and getting my hands in the dirt. Farming and writing, yeah- that's my next step... 

In the meantime I've found an amazing apartment and am enjoying having a space that I can stay for a minute. I live in a great neighbourhood and would you believe that it's just as quiet as when I lived on the boat? Yeah. So nice. There are so many gorgeous buildings where I live - the architecture in Copenhagen is breathtaking and there are so many options to take walks -- I can walk over to the water and see the Little Mermaid, I can walk around the lakes, I can walk to Fælledparken -- and the weather has been perfect lately. 

Wishing you healing and inspiration, 
Lesley-Ann 




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