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Words with Sweetness and Sting
Polished prose for brave storytellers
H. WordSmith Reads
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Books are not meant to sit quietly on shelves. They are meant to be read and reread—considered, questioned, and carried with us—so that when we set them down, we are changed. H.WordSmith Reads is a space for thoughtful reading, curated recommendations, and reflections on stories that linger, offering ideas to accompany your journey as a reader and storyteller.
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Day 8: A Day of Reflection
Listening, Remembering, Becoming MLK Week does not end with answers. It ends with listening. After seven days of reading, writing, and witnessing, today is an intentional pause—a space to sit with what has been stirred rather than rushing to resolve it. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. understood the necessity of reflection. He knew that action without grounding risks becoming reaction, and that clarity requires quiet. Today, we do not introduce a new text. We do not assign a new

HoneyWordSmith
2 days ago2 min read
Day 7: What We Carry Forward
There is a quiet moment that comes at the end of any meaningful reading journey. Not relief; Not closure; But recognition. We recognize that the words we have read cannot be returned to the page unchanged. That something has shifted—however subtly—in how we see the world and our place within it. This is where Dr. King always intended for reading to lead: not toward admiration, but toward responsibility. This week, we have encountered Martin Luther King Jr. not as a monument

HoneyWordSmith
3 days ago2 min read
Day 6: The Work King Didn’t Finish
There is a temptation, when we talk about Dr. King, to speak as though his work belongs entirely to the past. We mark anniversaries. We quote speeches. We celebrate victories already won. And in doing so, we sometimes imply—quietly, unintentionally—that the work reached its conclusion with him. But Dr. King never believed that. Near the end of his life, King spoke less about dreams fulfilled and more about demands unmet. He warned that racial justice without economic justice

HoneyWordSmith
4 days ago2 min read
Day 5: King and Baldwin
History often asks us to choose one voice. One leader. One tone. One way of telling the truth. But movements are not built on singularity. They are built in conversation—sometimes harmonious, sometimes tense, often unresolved. Dr. King understood this. So did James Baldwin. Though they shared an era, a commitment to Black dignity, and a fierce love for truth, Martin Luther King Jr. and James Baldwin are often positioned as opposites: hope versus rage, nonviolence versus con

HoneyWordSmith
5 days ago3 min read
Day 4: Chaos Or Community?
There are moments in history when the ground feels unsteady—when the language of division grows louder, when fear moves faster than facts, and when many of us sense, quietly or not, that something is breaking. We are living in one of those moments now. Political unrest has become a constant hum in the background of our lives. Elections feel existential. Public discourse feels brittle. Neighbors speak past one another, if they speak at all. The word community is invoked often

HoneyWordSmith
6 days ago3 min read
Day 3: Why We Can't Wait
I lost my last copy of Why We Can’t Wait on a city bus many years ago. I don’t remember where I was headed that day or who was sitting near me. I don’t remember the color of the seat or the stop where I realized the book was gone. What I remember is the strange calm that followed—because even without the physical pages in my hands, the words had already taken hold. They stayed. They echoed in the quiet way truths do once they’ve been fully heard. Long after the cover was gon

HoneyWordSmith
7 days ago2 min read
Day 2: Love Is Not Soft
When many people speak about Dr. King, they speak most comfortably about love. Love, in our collective memory, has been made gentle. Harmless. Easy to admire and easier to misinterpret. It has been framed as patience without urgency, kindness without confrontation, and unity without accountability. But the love Dr. King wrote about—preached about— lived by —was none of those things. In his sermons, King presents love not as sentiment, but as discipline. Not as a weakness, but

HoneyWordSmith
Jan 162 min read
Reading Dr. King: Beyond the Soundbite
Day 1: Beyond the Soundbite Today, if Martin Luther King Jr. were still with us, he would be turning 97 years old. That alone is a staggering thing to sit with—to imagine the length of a life, the wisdom accumulated, the conversations we never got to have. If you were raised in the South, like I was, you might remember how this time of year always came with ritual. The television movie King aired annually, and without question, we gathered around the screen to watch it agai

HoneyWordSmith
Jan 153 min read

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