Poetry by Joey Connolly
To help celebrate Black Heritage Month the U S Post Office is issuing a Phyllis Wheatley FOREVER stamp on, Jan.29, 2026.
The stamp is issued to honor Phyllis Wheatley, the poet who became the first author of African descent in the American colonies to publish a book. It is the 49th issuance in the Black Heritage series. There are other formats of the stamp available from the US Post Office. I have been honoring Black poets, authors, singers, songwriters, and various genres of Black music for decades in the local newspapers as well as during Black Heritage Month. Here is a sonnet written in 2015 as it appeared in the newspaper:
For Tinian JR. HS 8th Grade Graduates – 2015
“Students, to you: tis giv’n to scan the heights above, to traverse the ethereal space, and mark the systems of revolving worlds.”
(The words of Phyllis Wheatley, who was brought as a slave from Africa to America in 1761. when she was 8 years old. The quote is an excerpt from a letter she wrote.)
Now you are graduating from eighth grade
you have come a long way from kindergarten
on summer break read some books in the shade
it won’t be long before high school’s startin’.
As you proceed through educational transitions
use your newly learned skills for the next four years
(“keep focused on these new educational transitions”)
(I changed the above line on 01/28/2026, see line below
“keep focused on your changing learning situations”)
thinking and reading will shift your mental gears.
What will your high school experience be?
it is all up to you, just try every day
read all you can, let your questions run free
join in discussions, have something to say.
Keep the best of your junior high school learning!
Keep your newly educated young minds burning!
I wrote a follow up sonnet for this class 4 years later, titled “Different Pathways – 4 Years Later (for Tinian HS Graduation in 2019).” It along with the above poem can be found in “Rain On Banana Leaves, Collected Poems Vol.1,” which will be available by April 2026 during National Poetry Month. Watch for the book release on Tinian and Saipan in Marianas Variety.
Joey “Pepe Batbon” Connolly is a retired educator who taught in the CNMI, NOLA, and LVNV. He is the Poet Laureate of Tinian and enjoys stargazing.
