Rickey K. Hood: Poet • Essayist • Playwright

Poetry, memoir, faith, love, Black life, family, and memory, drawn from more than thirty years of writing.

“The absence of body is not the absence of love.”

Loved

The thought to say “I loved you” had never come to mind.

“Loved”, my heart doesn’t recognize the word.

When I remember you, all of you, those I still love,

I never thought my love for you was past, gone, or dead.

To say “I loved you” doesn't sound right on my lips.

When did I stop loving you? At your death?

When did the barriers come up?  the wall of limitations,

Did the wall of death separate us from love?

No; not even now, after so many years of separation

Through memory, I feel your love, still.

The absence of body is not the absence of love.

To all those present in my memory: “I love you.”

If Loved brought someone to mind, The Weight of Memory continues that conversation through poetry, memory, family, love, faith and loss.

Discover The Weight of Memory

Written on High

The sky is a sheet to write upon

Leaves of clouds turn as pages

Calling me to write verses

That will fill the horizon like a morning’s dawn

From mountain top to valley and plains

My words will blaze the sky

Pages and pages of clouds waiting for me

To scribe my verses

I will reach up and tear down a leaf of sky

And write poems that the mighty ones will read

Angels will love every word

Sharing my verses amongst themselves

But the Fallen ones will scoff in envy

As for man, only thoughts

Who loves the sky

Will see my words

Written on high