This poetic inquiry contemplates how creative writing may contribute to discovering and articulating the Self. Themes of healing and becoming are explored through a diasporic feminist lens. The tension between traditional scholarly writing and poetic inquiry as an act of decolonization has political overtones that challenge expectations of academia and identity. Poetry communicates the progression and arc of meaning as various themes intersect to explore the culture of Self, of the classroom, and of otherness. Symphonic terms are used for headings to frame the movement of theoretical and pedagogical ideas that arise from the analysis. This structure is metaphorical as each chapter is a variation on the theme of becoming through poetry.

Cultural abstraction, colonized writing, now an obstruction to my predilection for introspection.

Oh! But here is music of a different canon. Melodies and rhythms of language Stretches of silence Giving body.

My body Betrayed strayed afraid Healing to words towards healing Poetic music/the music of poetry.

Intro/Outro structure beginning to end A meaning found/made/felt And a pen to scribe

The poetry movement From a moment to a method To contemplate on reflex, On purpose, on self.

Ars Poetica in/of/as research To search and stretch and sense and state I am mother. teacher. writer.