What the Mirror Said: Ashley M. Jones’ Tribute to Women Poets Who Shaped Her
By Dr. Candice N. Hale | For the Birmingham Times
In Alabama’s Magic City, Ashley M. Jones shines as one of our most vital literary voices. Jones is a Birmingham native, UAB alumna, and a cultural icon and advocate for the city. In August 2021, she was named Alabama Poet Laureate for a four-year term (2022-2026), making her the first Black person and the youngest to hold the distinction in the program’s history. The milestone not only anchors Jones’ place in Alabama’s rich literary milieu but also provides a path for Jones to open space and opportunity for others in the community to be represented, celebrated, and acknowledged in Alabama.
In her latest book, What the Mirror Said, which reads as part memoir, part critical essay collection, and part conversation, Jones extends that idea by inviting readers into her creative (and personal) space, offering a journey into what and who shaped her as a poet and demonstrating how we can imagine poetry differently in the world.
What the Mirror Said is a beautiful collection of essays that blends personal memory, poetic analysis, and reflection on craft, and readers will find it welcoming and generous. Jones understands that traditional literary and academic circles of poetry often exclude everyday readers and lovers of language, as if they were incapable of discerning beauty, expression, and poetics. The point of poetry, Jones notes, is not to be daunting or difficult; it should be available to everyone, not just scholars.
Readers will notice that the book is framed as a conversation rather than “Ivory Tower” criticism. Jones honors the craft of the poetic form and doesn’t diminish its depth but instead offers a didactic lesson that is both accessible and inviting to everyday readers. In this way, Jones positions herself as a passageway between the poetic tradition and everyday readers.
What Can a Poem Do?
Jones begins her collection by affirming that poetry’s purpose in her life is to give her a sense of belonging, a solid place to stand, and a voice, as explored in her question “What Can a Poem Do?” She learns this early on while reading Eloise Greenfield’s Honey, I Love and Other Love Poems for a school recitation. Greenfield is a stepping stone to the lineage of Black women poets who shaped Jones into the creative talent we know today. The entire collection celebrates eight Black women poets who serve as mirrors for Jones to see herself and her future as a poet: Phillis Wheatley (Peters), Gwendolyn Brooks, Lucille Clifton, Sonia Sanchez, Audre Lorde, Camille Dungy, Patricia Smith, and Rita Dove.
These poets are not just names in a book; they are teachers, guides, and creative ancestors who helped shape Black feminism, culture, and thought, enabling women to live freely and fully. Thanks to these Black women poets, Jones does not write in isolation but remains in dialogue with Black women who carved out space for her voice.
While these women pass down wisdom, guidance, and influence, What the Mirror Said honors them through analysis and storytelling. Jones states, “Black women make everything possible. Always have. Always will. Everything I know about survival and light, I know from Black women.” By paying tribute to these eight women, Jones highlights and empowers Black women poets often overlooked in the poetic tradition, strengthening the foundation for future Black female poets.
Poetry Is Vital
Through What the Mirror Said, everyday readers enter a poetic landscape often regulated and policed by elite academics and scholars, while also discovering the underbelly of poetry that links to transformation, self-discovery, and expression. Jones captures this intimacy directly: “quiet as kept a poem can introduce you to yourself… help you discover those hidden forbidden parts… a poem be like a mirror sometimes.” Like many of the Black female poets Jones mentions throughout this collection, Jones believes that the purpose of poetry is at once freeing, healing, and necessary for the soul, mind, and spirit. Like Audre Lorde before her, Jones affirms that poetry is not a luxury but a vital necessity of our existence, forming the quality of light within which we predicate our hopes and dreams toward survival and change
The text pushes us to consider how accessibility is liberation and what new poetic forms look like that push us outside the walls of “the ivory tower.” Jones highlights the Black female poets and creatives who carved out space for new forms, new traditions, and reader accessibility in direct opposition to white patriarchy and sexism. These women formed communities beyond the tower and classroom so that accessibility becomes intentional, not accidental. Ultimately, Jones shows us that making poetry understandable does not make it any less powerful. Leaning into Jones’ work, readers will encounter not only the literary but also the communal, witnessing poetry’s power to connect and transform.
At a time when book bans, narrative erasure, and censorship threaten to silence Black women’s stories, What the Mirror Said celebrates eight Black women poets, to keep them visible, recognized, and sustained in literature. And, in doing so, she is also making space for other Black women to see themselves in it, too.
Dr. Candice N. Hale is an independent scholar, researcher, and writer. Follow her on Instagram @candicenhalephd.
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