Poems that Speak Out Against Violence and for Embrace - Laura Ann Tull

If the back & arms you carry riddle with black

spots & marks made by birds who don’t want us here—

I will remind you: There are people who did this before us,

brown & black-spotted, yellow, with rattails,

born from what others did not want & loathed & aimed

to never let belong, & so, we are here today—

the field is wide. We make saliva from root & light.

Our spikelets grow, & do you feel the wind?

       - Joe Jiménez, Smutgrass

Orlando. Dhaka. Istanbul. Baghdad. Medina. Nice. The killings of Alton Sterling and Philando Castile, and the murder of police officers in Dallas and Baton Rouge. This summer, terrible bigotry and violence have rent our global community. The killings must end, and we in the poetry community must contribute in any way we can. As we search for answers to these horrors and for ways to combat hatred and prejudice, we are reminded of poetry’s capacity to respond to violence, to help us regenerate, like spikelets sprouting in a contested field, claiming our public spaces for everyone.

In solidarity with all those targeted at home and abroad, from the LGBT community in the United States to devastated families of Baghdad, Split This Rock is offering its blog as a Virtual Open Mic. Over the next couple of weeks, from July 14 to 28, we are requesting poems in response to and against violence toward marginalized communities. After the Virtual Open Mic closes, we hope to print out and mail all of the poems to Congress and the National Rifle Association. 

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For the Silence

by Laura Ann Tull

For the silence where there is no sound.

When it is so quiet only the heartbeat resounds.

For the end of senseless violence and hate

when we stop living in the rat race.

For too many have died and to many are in pain.

Why can't we just find ways to relate?

Why can't we behave like a civilized race?

Stop living in the jungle and acting like apes.

Wait we don't do that?

Apes may be big and strong .

But they are not know for killing anyone.

We have a gift animals do not seem to possess.

We can talk and communicate dress up with our best.

Yet somehow we often forget what we need

Is human contact and a little tenderness,

Not primal or violent or vile greed.

We seem to express we are a better race

Yet what we do to each other and animals

Would probably make us look bad if animals could talk to their friends.

For the silence where there is no sound.

When it is so quiet only the heartbeat resounds.

For the end of senseless violence and hate

When we stop living in the rat race.

Too many have died and to many are in pain

We can be like two little animal friends

Sharing our food and our space.

Respecting each other.

Accepting each other.

Loving each other .

Please stop the noise Bang! Bang!

Let there be the silence of a loving peace.