Inside Possibility: A Poem for Winston-Salem

Inside Possibility

Maybe there is a knowing
beneath the knowing.

Beneath
and after the meetings, the exchanges,
the numbers, the names
there is something more.

Something we see as object
is really subject
alive, forming, breathing
not for,
but with.

Maybe beneath the sun’s rising
and its setting
there is something
we can touch
and call our own

not as possession or pride
but stewardship.

Maybe beneath the stones and stories
found and unearthed—
some still waiting to breathe—
we know something deeper

hold it closer,
see more clearly
who we are to be.

This is not a perfect city,
a polished community

but one alive with possibility,
tender as thunder carrying anger
through a sky still dreaming.

What if
possibility is not future-driven
but now—
current, here,
present, today?

What if it lives
beneath the names of streets,
and sides of town?

May we then be more
the kind of people
who notice
who is missing.

May we build and tend
something tall,
wide enough
to hold both grief
and laughter.

May we remember
we were never meant
to do this great work alone.

May we, in this holy moment,
meet each other
and all of who we are—

not across distance

but here, now
together

inside possibility.
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On Writing “Inside Possibility”

I once heard that poetry is the elevation of language. I think of that when I write poems—how is this word or line elevating language, a mood, a situation? What is the energy behind the poem?

I thought of that when I was writing “Inside Possibility.” There were several drafts, entry points, endings. (Is there ever a final version?) Being asked to write the poem was also an invitation to think critically and speak honestly about this community and both its contradictions and what deserves to be celebrated.

I believe we need poetry more than ever now to help us build bridges through metaphor and rhythm, to help us see one another behind the masks we wear, to help us listen, I mean deeply listen, to what lives beneath the surface.

Perhaps poetry doesn’t solve our problems, but it certainly offers a space for us to come to terms and still find beauty.

In times of great separation and heightened tension, to sit and think about the threshold where we are standing and use poetry, or at least try, to usher us forward with our hearts leading the way is both an honor and a great responsibility.

Writing this poem drew me closer to the city I call home and the excitement of us meeting one another “inside possibility.”

To learn more or connect with the author, visit jacintawhite.com