--- title: 'Navel' by Robin Coste Lewis description: Read 'Navel,' a poem by the author of Voyage of the Sable Venus and Other Poems. canonical: https://time.com/5520550/robin-coste-lewis-poem/ author: TIME article:opinion: true article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2019-02-07T12:00:06.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-23T22:40:38.913Z article:section: Ideas og:title: Read the Poem 'Navel' by Robin Coste Lewis og:description: Lewis is the author of 'Voyage of the Sable Venus and Other Poems' og:url: https://time.com/5520550/robin-coste-lewis-poem/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt4210ab34db346623/698944b97cdbac4822d5f045/robin-coste-lewis.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: 3rd Annual National Day Of Racial Healing og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Read the Poem 'Navel' by Robin Coste Lewis twitter:description: Lewis is the author of 'Voyage of the Sable Venus and Other Poems' twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt4210ab34db346623/698944b97cdbac4822d5f045/robin-coste-lewis.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Read the Poem 'Navel' by Robin Coste Lewis by [Robin Coste Lewis](https://time.com/author/robin-coste-lewis/) ## Robin Coste Lewis Feb 7, 2019 12:00 PM UTC  Robin Coste Lewis attends the 3rd annual National Day of Racial Healing at Array on January 22, 2019 in Los Angeles, California. Robin Coste Lewis attends the 3rd annual National Day of Racial Healing at Array on January 22, 2019 in Los Angeles, California.Emma McIntyre—Getty Images by [Robin Coste Lewis](https://time.com/author/robin-coste-lewis/) ## Robin Coste Lewis Feb 7, 2019 12:00 PM UTC We crawled out of her navel one by one, then waited until we were all here. That lucid moment when the last wet child learned to stand, we began walking. We walked slowly. We took some time. We took more than that. When we began to grow hungry, some offered to turn themselves into animals. Smiling, they said, Here, eat me. Others turned into water, rivers, trees. Some turned themselves to dirt so we could walk a path. We crept toward the edges, clawed and crawled to the top of the world, and there we clung. Instead of a mouth, a woman spoke through a vibrant yellow bill. Sometimes we visited the man on the moon. Sometimes he let us inside his house. Sometimes his transparent hollow wife would dance. Later, when people asked us, Where did you come from? We could only answer _water_. A whole language comprised of just one word. We walked onto the water. We built houses on the water. We had babies on the water. We sewed clothes made of water with needles made of ice. The night so constant changed us. The planets taught us a vocabulary without any alphabet. The trees began to walk. At night, the ocean glowed green from underneath. Our roofs were made of whale ribs, our lamps were stone that burned clear oil. And now I’ve turned my face into this page so we could sit here together again. _See the_ [_2019 Optimists issue_](http://time.com/optimists-2019/)_, guest-edited by Ava DuVernay._ ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"OpinionNewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5520550/robin-coste-lewis-poem/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5520550/robin-coste-lewis-poem/"},"headline":"Read the Poem 'Navel' by Robin Coste Lewis","datePublished":"2019-02-07T12:00:06.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-23T22:40:38.913Z","description":"Read 'Navel,' a poem by the author of Voyage of the Sable Venus and Other Poems.","url":"https://time.com/5520550/robin-coste-lewis-poem/","keywords":["The Art of Optimism","Optimist"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt4210ab34db346623/698944b97cdbac4822d5f045/robin-coste-lewis.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Robin Coste Lewis","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/robin-coste-lewis/"}],"articleSection":"Ideas","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt4210ab34db346623/698944b97cdbac4822d5f045/robin-coste-lewis.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"3rd Annual National Day Of Racial Healing","caption":"3rd Annual National Day Of Racial Healing","creditText":"Emma McIntyre—Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/ideas/","name":"Ideas"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/the-art-of-optimism/","name":"The Art of Optimism"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/5520550/robin-coste-lewis-poem/","name":"Read the Poem 'Navel' by Robin Coste Lewis"}}]}] ```