“we must have talked/ about flowers, Mrs Adams, because one day you made me a gift of/ daffodil bulbs,” ire’ne lara silva writes for the kind, elderly woman who drove her every day to kindergarten in South Texas.
“Praisesong for Mrs Adams” is one of many poems included in the anthology Praisesong for the People: Poems From the Heart and Soul of Texas (Host Publications, 2025), a project that seeks to honor everyday people who, through large and small kindnesses, have made Texas a better place to be.
Amanda Johnston, the 61st and first Black woman Texas poet laureate, decided to use her tenure to ask poets across the state to write such songs of praise for others, be it old teachers, doctors, librarians, family, friends, lovers, or someone with whom the writer shared only a moment – as Johnston did in the Austin airport, an interaction reflected in her contribution, “Bat Crossing.”
“That was the only requirement,” Johnston says of the book’s contributions. “In the different spaces we cohabitate, we co-occupy, there are little kindnesses that happen, and that’s where our humanity links us.” Seventy poets ultimately contributed to the project, representing the state’s diverse and intersecting population across age, gender, race, differently abled, queer, and immigrant communities, from well-known names like silva, the 2023 state poet laureate, and Naomi Shihab Nye to poets publishing for the first time.
Johnston will discuss the anthology with contributors Bo Hee Moon and Sasha West at the Texas Book Festival Nov. 9 after months of touring with contributing poets across the state, many of whom read their praise songs for their hometown audiences and the subjects of their poems. Some poets reconnected with those individuals after years.
“It’s my father who taught me to keep my heart soft as pan dulce/ and as open as the big Texas sky,” Sam Treviño read aloud from “Conchita Corazón” in Austin, his father in the audience. Johnston found these readings to be an unexpectedly beautiful part of the project. “In real time, like, ‘Here are your flowers. I’m a poet, so here is your poem,’” she recalls.
The anthology, without an agenda other than to recognize one another as people trying to live in this state, is a breath of fresh air when its political climate so desperately lacks empathy for others. “To be able to think of moments of gratitude and praise in the midst of that does feel like a powerful refusal,” Johnston reflects. “Instead of having poems be against something, I wanted to put our collective energy into what we are for. What are you for?”
Nonetheless, many poems inevitably reflect our political reality. “Praise Song for Texas Librarians” by Jonathan Moody thanks the school librarians who strive to keep books on shelves for children to read when the Texas Legislature censors diverse titles, and when private charter companies, partnered with the state, have gotten rid of some public schools’ libraries altogether: “The sunlight, it thumbs/ through annotated pages/ & reads passages out loud to kids/ who’re trapped in detention centers/ where the libraries used to be.”
For Texas educators, Johnston is creating a TEKS-compliant curriculum, soon to be uploaded to the anthology’s website, to guide elementary, middle, and high school students in writing their own praise poems for the people in their lives.
Many poems, like West’s “The Hour of Kindness,” feel like they lend strength, a kind of bracing, for us Texans against what is thrown at our communities: “You know they come from a long line/ of backbone, you know they can bend/ the arc to joy.”
Poems From the Heart and Soul of Texas
Sunday, Nov. 9, 12:45pm
Poetry Tent
Editor’s Note: This story has been updated to reflect that Amanda Johnston is the first Black woman Texas poet laureate; Cyrus Cassells was the first Black Texas poet laureate in 2021. The Chronicle regrets the error.
This article appears in November 7 • 2025.