Chance Encounters: Poems

A new collection from Sister Sharon Hunter, CJ celebrating the people and circumstances who help make us what we are.

For several months in 2020, Sister Sharon awoke most days at 3:00 AM to a mind busily at work. She had a choice to make, ignore it or explore it. Vivid memories, pictures really, of people she once knew climbed from the depth of her subconscious where she'd cleverly assigned them. They captured her attention, and rightfully so, for she owed them, realizing that when we reject our heritage because it's not image worthy, we cancel as well those who enhanced our lives. Good people, brave people, wise people, sometimes shady and crooked people, all contribute to our circle of life. To fully understand herself, Sister Sharon knew she must include them. Chance Encounters is her thank you to those she "carelessly tossed away in quest of shallow acceptability." They're alive once again on the pages of this book. And she is forever grateful for their vibrant beauty, courage, ingenuity, and fascinating eccentricities. They paid the world the high compliment of being themselves.

From the introduction to the collection:
"Life is a blank wall, a welcoming space for the graffiti of our hearts. Who am I without you or you without me? Until you speak and I reply, we remain undefined, unsure...uncertain. Memories, like crumbs of bread, draw me from sleepless nights to morning contemplation. The past, long buried, demands a voice. People line up and clamor for admission. Please come in, my formative agents of color, expression and nuance. Speak up! Please, speak your minds. Too long we've sat in silence, pondering my existence."