Poems from Community circle 06/26

On Friday, June 24, the news hit our feeds - the U.S. Supreme Court had overturned Roe v. Wade.  So many of us were shocked, angry, frustrated, sad & grieving, and feeling very alone.  I hosted a "pop-up" circle on June 26 to give us space to process, to be together, and to begin to think about strategic next steps.  As with nearly all the spaces I facilitate, we shared poetry.  These are the 2 poems I brought to our group space, as well as one contributed by an attendee.

Let's continue to take care of ourselves and each other.  Let's continue to read poetry to each other, to make art, to raise our babies to be disruptors and agitators, and continue to RESIST.  Feel free to share your favorite poems of resistance in the comments.

Good Bones
​by Maggie Smith

​Life is short, though I keep this from my children.
Life is short, and I’ve shortened mine
in a thousand delicious, ill-advised ways,
a thousand deliciously ill-advised ways
I’ll keep from my children. The world is at least
fifty percent terrible, and that’s a conservative
estimate, though I keep this from my children.
For every bird there is a stone thrown at a bird.
For every loved child, a child broken, bagged,
sunk in a lake. Life is short and the world
is at least half terrible, and for every kind
stranger, there is one who would break you,
though I keep this from my children. I am trying
to sell them the world. Any decent realtor,
walking you through a real shithole, chirps on
about good bones: This place could be beautiful,
right? You could make this place beautiful.

---

In Any Event
​by Dorianne Laux

​If we are fractured
we are fractured
like stars
bred to shine
in every direction,
through any dimension,
billions of years
since and hence.

I shall not lament
the human, not yet.
There is something
more to come, our hearts
a gold mine
not yet plumbed,
an uncharted sea.

Nothing is gone forever.
If we came from dust
and will return to dust
then we can find our way
into anything.

What we are capable of
is not yet known,
and I praise us now,
in advance.

---

For more poetry to lift your spirits, check out this collection of
​Poems of Hope & Resilience from
​The Poetry Foundation.

What Do We Do - Now
​by Ellen Hagan

​—after Gwendolyn Brooks

We mourn, we bless,
we blow, we wail, we
wind—down, we sip,
we spin, we blind, we
bend, bow & hem. We
hip, we blend, we bind,
we shake, we shine,
shine. We lips & we
teeth, we praise & protest.
We document & we
drama. We demand &
we flow, fold & hang
loose. We measure &
we moan, mourn & whine
low. & we live, and we
breathe. & some of the time,
we don’t.

Tonight, I am here. Here
& tired. Here & awake,
sure, & alive. Yes here &
still, still here, still & here
& still awake & still still
alive.