Poets United Midweek Motif ~ Voice

Daniella Zalcman’s project “Signs of Your Identity” explores
the legacy of Canada’s Indian Residential Schools
 Image by Daniella Zalcman. Canada, 2015

🙋

“When people don't express themselves, they die one piece at a time.” 

― Laurie Halse Anderson, Speak

“. . . she was afraid of hearing her own voice come out of her heart and be covered with blood. . . . ” 

― Hélène Cixous, The Book of Promethea

"Powerlessness and silence go together.” 

― Margaret Atwood, Second Words

“. . . . only one thing is more frightening than speaking your truth. 

And that is not speaking.” 

― Audre Lorde, Sister Outsider

"Cop in the Head"

Graphic by Morgan Andrews

Philadelphia Theatre of the Oppressed

Midweek Motif ~ Voice

In this motif, voice is not a literary technique, but the willingness to speak from a specific point of view despite fear of consequences.  That is today's theme: the bravery or bravado of insisting on having a voice.

According to Voltaire, "“Writing is the painting of the voice.”  I love the ambiguity of this definition when applied to today's motif:  Does "the voice" paint?  Does writing paint "the voice"?  

Your Challenge:  In your new poem, paint a voice and make us hear it.  

.......

― excerpt from Woman and Nature: 

The Roaring Inside Her

by Susan Griffin

“He says that woman speaks with nature. That she hears voices from under the earth. That wind blows in her ears and trees whisper to her. That the dead sing through her mouth and the cries of infants are clear to her. But for him this dialogue is over. He says he is not part of this world, that he was set on this world as a stranger. He sets himself apart from woman and nature.

And so it is Goldilocks who goes to the home of the three bears, Little Red Riding Hood who converses with the wolf, Dorothy who befriends a lion, Snow White who talks to the birds, Cinderella with mice as her allies, the Mermaid who is half fish, Thumbelina courted by a mole. (And when we hear in the Navajo chant of the mountain that a grown man sits and smokes with bears and follows directions given to him by squirrels, we are surprised. We had thought only little girls spoke with animals.)

We are the bird's eggs. Bird's eggs, flowers, butterflies, rabbits, cows, sheep; we are caterpillars; we are leaves of ivy and sprigs of wallflower. We are women. We rise from the wave. We are gazelle and doe, elephant and whale, lilies and roses and peach, we are air, we are flame, we are oyster and pearl, we are girls. We are woman and nature. And he says he cannot hear us speak.

But we hear.” 

The Horrid Voice of Science

BY VACHEL LINDSAY

"There's machinery in the butterfly; 

There's a mainspring to the bee; 

There's hydraulics to a daisy, 

And contraptions to a tree. 

"If we could see the birdie 

That makes the chirping sound 

With x-ray, scientific eyes, 

We could see the wheels go round." 

And I hope all men 

Who think like this 

Will soon lie 

Underground.

Poem For A Lady Whose Voice I Like

    BY NIKKI GIOVANNI

so he said: you ain’t got no talent   

    if you didn’t have a face   

    you wouldn’t be nobody

and she said: god created heaven and earth   

    and all that’s Black within them

so he said: you ain’t really no hot shit   

    they tell me plenty sisters   

    take care better business than you

and she said: on the third day he made chitterlings   

    and all good things to eat   

    and said: “that’s good”

so he said: if the white folks hadn’t been under   

    yo skirt and been giving you the big play

    you’d a had to come on uptown like everybody else

and she replied: then he took a big Black greasy rib

    from adam and said we will call this woeman and her   

    name will be sapphire and she will divide into four parts   

    that simone may sing a song

and he said: you pretty full of yourself ain’t chu

so she replied: show me someone not full of herself   

    and i’ll show you a hungry person

🙅

Please share your new poem using Mr. Linky below and visit others in the spirit of the community—

    (Next week Sumana’s Motif will be ~ Carpe Diem / Seize the Day)