| SPECIAL NOTE: An original version of this poem was first performed at the 1st Ever "Moonshine" Black History Month presentation, produced by Chris Walker of the UW Department of Dance. In honor of Women's History Month this March, I resubmit it here, in the hopes it may inspire a sense of strength and empowerment in us all -- if not for ourselves, for the countless women who impress upon our lives every day, and deserve our utmost respect and reverence. "I'm awfully bitter these days/because my parents were slaves/What do they call me? My name is ... " -- from Nina Simone's "Four Women" New. Woman. A never-before-seen creation -- For BEHOLD all things have become new in the life of this woman. Yesterday, I did not love me. Yesterday I passed me by and Yesterday, what mattered most Was what those who had no real claim to my essence had to say. Yesterday I wanted nothing more than To fit others' airtight boxes And so today it's an honor to announce that instead I've come full circle, turned myself into myself and have become none other than my whole and truest Self. Not that I forget whose shoulders on which I stand Indeed it is their arcs that support and complete my circumference Every Aunt Sarah, Cousin Peaches, Sweet Thing, and Saffronia's Life stories, lain together for this very distinct purpose, This exact moment in time. It is they who bled, cried, suffered, and died So that today I might not have to. and so today? Today I live for them. For them and all others, not remembering all their names and intricate vital details, yet Knowing that they stood, so that now I can stand. And for them I will stand I will sing. I will continue to be strong, But only now on my own terms. I will dance, I will smile, I will hold babies, and kiss lovers I choose by myself. I will raise nations of human impeccables, making sure those coming hereafter be all they aspire to become. Because I have come full circle, And this new shape bends and rolls according to the navigation I';ve set to it. It will keep moving, And I will keep rolling along. |
| Random order/Tracie Gilbert |
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