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)

Poets United Midweek Motif ~ Suffrage, the right to vote

Poster of the French Union for Women's Suffrage (1909)
 (Union française pour le suffrage des femmes)
"French women want to vote - against alcohol, slums and war"

“I do not know if the people of the United States would vote for superior men if they ran for office, but there can be no doubt that such men do not run.” 

― Alexis de Tocqueville, Tocqueville: Democracy in America

“To view the opposition as dangerous is to misunderstand the basic concepts of democracy. To oppress the opposition is to assault the very foundation of democracy.” 
― Aung San Suu Kyi, Letters from Burma

“There is no such thing as not voting: you either vote by voting, or you vote by staying home and tacitly doubling the value of some Diehard's vote.” 
― David Foster Wallace, Consider the Lobster and Other Essays

Midweek Motif ~ Suffrage, 

the right to vote

Do you have the right to vote?  

When did you last use that right?  

Have you ever been on a ballot? 

What would you like to see on a ballot to vote for?  

Your Challenge: Write a poem that exposes and/or challenges suffrage. 

My Mother Goes to Vote 
BY JUDITH HARRIS

We walked five blocks 

to the elementary school, 

my mother’s high heels 

crunching through playground gravel. 

We entered through a side door.

Down the long corridor, 

decorated with Halloween masks, 

health department safety posters— 

we followed the arrows 

to the third grade classroom.

My mother stepped alone 

into the booth, pulling the curtain behind her. 

I could see only the backs of her 

calves in crinkled nylons.

A partial vanishing, then reappearing 

pocketbook crooked on her elbow, 

our mayor’s button pinned to her lapel. 

. . . . 

(Read the rest HERE.)

Why I Voted the Socialist Ticket 
BY VACHEL LINDSAY

I am unjust, but I can strive for justice. 

My life’s unkind, but I can vote for kindness. 

I, the unloving, say life should be lovely. 

I, that am blind, cry out against my blindness. 

Man is a curious brute—he pets his fancies— 

Fighting mankind, to win sweet luxury. 

So he will be, though law be clear as crystal, 

Tho’ all men plan to live in harmony. 

Come, let us vote against our human nature, 

Crying to God in all the polling places 

To heal our everlasting sinfulness 

And make us sages with transfigured faces. 

The Right To Vote 

by NHUAN LeXUAN    

I hold my ballot in my shaking hand

And say to myself: this is cause and effect.

The opportunity is so grand

I have spent all my life to expect.

You have lived in a free country, 

Here you and your ancestors were born; 

Your civil rights are numerous and sundry; 

Please do feel pity for the forlorn.

I had exercised my right to vote

In my native land’s first ever election: 

Illiterates did not know what cadres wrote; 

Bad factions led them to wrong direction.

Wanting self-rule, people grew wiser; 

The patriots just built a young nation.

But the invaders, however, were slyer: 

Elections were only to shield usurpation.

. . . . 

(Read the rest HERE.)

Please share your new poem with Mr. Linky below and visit others 

in the spirit of the community.

(Next week Sumana's Motif will be ~ Acceptance)

Poets United Midweek Motif ~ Justice, or Poetic Justice

"Justice was like coloured balls in a magician's hand, 

changing colour and shape all the time beneath the light of politics.” 

― Qiu Xiaolong

“Peace": the fruit of justice done especially to the Self.” 

― Alice Walker, The World Will Follow Joy: Turning Madness into Flowers

“The white man will never be alone. Let him be just, 

and deal kindly with my people. For the dead are not powerless.” 

― Chief Seattle, The Chief Seattle's Speech

“Justitia” by Bodo Kampmann.

Midweek Motif ~ Justice 

or Poetic Justice

Have you experienced or seen justice?  Whereas Justice is a social and legal concept, Poetic Justice is a literary device. I always found poetic justice much more satisfying! Examples of poetic justice:

• Disney films, most specifically animated films, often use poetic justice as an ending device with the hero being rewarded, and the villain being punished in ironic and, occasionally, fatal ways.
• The Wile E. Coyote and Road Runner cartoons feature repeated instances of poetic justice, as Wile E. Coyote always sets traps for Road Runner, only to end up in the traps himself.
• Oedipus Rex in trying to prevent his foretold fate brings it upon himself as does King Kamsa in the ancient Sanskrit story of Krishna.

Your Challenge:  Create a poem centering on Justice or Poetic Justice.  

Justice 

By Langston Hughes

That Justice is a blind goddess

Is a thing to which we black are wise:

Her bandage hides two festering sores

That once perhaps were eyes.

Why I Voted the Socialist Ticket

BY VACHEL LINDSAY

I am unjust, but I can strive for justice.

My life’s unkind, but I can vote for kindness.

I, the unloving, say life should be lovely.

I, that am blind, cry out against my blindness.

Man is a curious brute—he pets his fancies—

Fighting mankind, to win sweet luxury.

So he will be, though law be clear as crystal,

Tho’ all men plan to live in harmony.

Come, let us vote against our human nature,

Crying to God in all the polling places

To heal our everlasting sinfulness

And make us sages with transfigured faces.

Poem for Nana

BY JUNE JORDAN

What will we do

when there is nobody left

to kill?

       *

40,000 gallons of oil gushing into

the ocean

But I

sit on top this mountainside above

the Pacific

checking out the flowers

the California poppies orange

as I meet myself in heat

                           I’m wondering

where’s the Indians?

                           all this filmstrip territory

                           all this cowboy sagaland:

                           not

                           a single Indian

                           in sight

. . . .

(Read the rest HERE at The Poetry Foundation.)

#

For those who are new to Poets United: 

• Post your Justice poem on your site, and then link it here.
• Share only original and new work written for this challenge. 
• If you use a picture include its link.  
• Please leave a comment here and visit and comment on our poems.

(Next Week's motif is Honoring our Elders)

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