Poet: Tara Hicks

06/02/2026

Thanks for being a top engager and making it on to my weekly engagement list! 🎉

Noëmi Weiss, Loris Loren, Oliver McGowan-Smyth, Beq Parker, Tracy Lynn, Dawn Francisco, Poppy Elshaug, Steve Wheeler, Jordan T Hicks, Benjamin N. Amakobe

06/02/2026

Hello my lovelies! Please subscribe to my blog on Substack for REAL updates on our new lives in South Africa.

Blog Post 5

05/31/2026

Just connected to WiFi. No signal in our new temporary home in the mountains in South Africa!

Connecting with family and adjusting to the new time frame.

05/28/2026

Had some friends over last night. Kinda hitting the sad and depressing phase about saying goodbye now. Eternally grateful for the friendships we’ve made.

Farewell

I find myself looking at the moon
As it rises above the trees
One last time

The breeze buffets my back
From just “that” angle
One last time

As the light touches the leaves
I watch them sway
One.last.time

As I raise a glass
With my friend
One.last
Time

By Tara Hicks

05/27/2026

Jordan was telling me about this island over the weekend, about the people that live there. It's amazing to me that the people have been able to fend off the advance of "civilization", have resisted all the attempts to convert them to Christianity, have managed to maintain their ways of life without significant influence from others.

I'm fascinated and definitely recommend that you do some research.






North Sentinel Island

There’s a little strip of land
In the chain of Andaman
That’s been left alone, untouched
By modern civilization

The Sentinelese
Are not easy to appease
For 60 000 years
They’ve fought off conquerers

It’s the one place on land
Where no non-inhabitants can go
It’s illegal to trespass on the Sentinelese
And introduce modern disease

And isn’t it wonderful to discern
Of a biome so protected and unconcerned
With life beyond their shores?
I’m amazed and I’m in awe!

By Tara Hicks

05/26/2026

Blog Post 4 is out now. Please subscribe if you wish to hear more about the move and family adjusting to life and all the new changes.

Blog Post 4

05/26/2026

The Great Demise

Whales have always lived and died
Always
But now,
Now they’re dying in record numbers
At an alarming rate
And It’s all because humans
Have messed with their fate

We haven’t cared enough
To really lesson pollution
We haven’t cared enough
To implement drastic solutions

Now the ice caps are melting
And animals are suffering
Up in the Arctic, the polar bears are starving
Cos they can’t catch seals
And they haven’t evolved
To hunt well on land
Where else can they go?

But there’s also
The catastrophic devastation
Of Arctic crustaceans
Without all that ice they can’t grow
They can’t multiply
They can’t live and supplement
The food chain
This is not apropos!

Gray whales must feed
And feed, and feed and feed
To be healthy, to be strong,
Before starting their journey South
And this mass desecration of
Arctic crustaceans
Is wreaking havoc with their populations!

So they start their treks
Already malnourished
And struggle to find food
They struggle to flourish
And Nature’s answer
To a shortage of food
Is to reduce the demand
Through migration
Or
Simply starvation

And so,
More and more whales
Are washing up dead
More and more whales
Are becoming whale falls
Creating bountiful reefs to feed
Bottom feeders and coral
But their sacrifice
Won’t suffice
If the ocean keeps warming!
Many more species will go extinct
If we don’t heed the warnings!

I don’t understand
Why people can’t see
That we’re stewards of the Earth
But we treat it like sewage

By Tara Hicks

05/26/2026

A dear friend made this for me, both of them. They're bespoke! he is so talented and he made these out of love and I'm so grateful.

I just want to say that a little bit of kindness really does go a long way and you never know when it will come back around to warm your heart a second time. Kindness strengthens community and community improves well-being.

05/26/2026

This poem was written for a very special lady. She's been through more S #!^ than would ever be reasonable. She's strong and confident and endlessly generous and sweet. It made me realize that most of my close female friends are so very strong, so very fire-hardened and beautiful.

This is therefore, also for all the strong women in my life, for the strong women in your lives. I hope you see this and know this is for you.

05/26/2026

You all know that I've been an immigrant for most of my life now. When we go back to South Africa this weekend, I'll still be an immigrant. This is the longer version of "The Pledge". It's my story of being an immigrant in the United States Of America. It's my version of civic duty.

It is my philosophy that you need to keep your head on a swivel for danger, but also for opportunity. My life is happy because of chance, because of opportunity (whether given or created or taken), because of hope...and because I never stop dreaming.