We Are the Language

fierce poetry for the soul

On third Wednesdays we publish Community Voices: Heartfelt essays, articles, micro-flash, poetry, songs, monologues, plays and more from TLArtists drawn from community submissions. Maybe next time it will be yours? We accept submissions on a rolling basis. We’d love to read yours!

We invite comments, questions, conversations and restacks. If you like what you read, click the heart or share us with friends!

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We Are the Language

by Tasjha Dixon

I write on the floor, 
Because that’s where my ancestors whisper.
Back straight, Heart feeling great, offering language like a lit candle
in a room that forgot its own power, went out.
This moment is heavy, but so are we, heavy with wisdom,
with belly laughs between the broken-beated hearts, with stories that survived storms
and still found a simple and sacred rhythm.
We hold, grief and grace in one palm, grit and glory in the other
teaching folks to breathe again
through poetry,
through prayer,
through play,
What’s sustaining me?
Ritual. Writing. Rest. Rap music.
Revolutionary righteous rage with a soundtrack.
Circle spaces where folks remember and remind, that
their voice still works and sings Bravely,
Mats, Mics, and Mindfulness
Children, who remind me to be grateful.
Language is my altar.
It’s how I pay homage to my pain, without shame.
How I serve truth without over-explaining the seasoning that I use.
I nourish with poems, not promises.
I catalyze with questions, not conclusions.
I believe in the radical act of just listening,
while someone tells their story, like it’s gospel.
I want to help us know that:
You don’t need permission, to make holy what the world tries to throw away.
Your metaphors are magical-medicine.
Your voice is exactly what we need.
Don’t wait to be ready instead be real and regular, right here and right now.
Let your punctuation rest, like your breath after the period.
Let your pain speak soft-swear-words that sweep us off our feet.
Let your joy jump outta your skin
Let your story sway us towards Spirit
even when we go deaf.
We are not just using words.
We are becoming them.
Living poems with nothing to prove and everything to preserve.
So we write. We speak. We sing.  And we side-eye the slippery-saints.
We hold space like a temple, let your truth echo, until the whole world remembers
how to come home to itself.

Tasjha Dixon is a spoken word poet, trauma-informed yoga teacher, and sacred space facilitator whose work braids healing, hope, wholeness and deeply-reverent heartwork. Through her wellness business, Empowering KC, she uses words as a practice of liberation, language as balm, and breath as a bridge to collective remembering. Tasjha can be found on Substack at @tasjhadixon.

TLAN is honored that Tasjha is not only a member of our board, she is also presenting at our 20th Power of Words conference in Kansas City from Oct. 3-5, 2025.

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Come write with us: TLAN summer events & Classes

Check out our classes, free community events, and our annual conference. Scholarships are available.

• Transformative Language Arts Network Community Circles

  20 July 2025 5:00-6:30 PM (EDT) • online • Free and open to all • We're gathering to have a conversation that could lead to, as one former participant said, "...connection points—a deeper heartwork of listening and sharing." Join us?

• The Magic Eye and Writing From Body and Place: A Workshop and Reading// with Caryn Mirriam-Goldberg

  26 July 2025 2:00-4:00 PM (CDT) • online • Come unearth more about how writing can be a practice of coming home to our bodies, communities, and eco-communities.• All proceeds from this event are being donated to TLAN and will support our class and conference scholarships.

• TLA Network Virtual Salon

  24 August 2025 5:00-6:30 PM (EDT) • online • Free and open to all • Performances and presentations of their work by TLAN members followed by an artist talkback. Join us!