Poems of Resistance, Power & Resilience – Claudia Rodriguez

As the incoming administration builds its agenda of attack on marginalized people, on freedom of speech, on the earth itself, poetry will continue to be an essential voice of resistance. Poets will speak out in solidarity, united against hatred, systemic oppression, and violence and for justice, beauty, and community.

In this spirit, Split This Rock is offering its blog as a Virtual Open Mic. For the rest of this frightening month, January of 2017, we invite you to send us poems of resistance, power, and resilience.

We will post every poem we receive unless it is offensive (containing language that is derogatory toward marginalized groups, that belittles, uses hurtful stereotypes, etc.). After the Virtual Open Mic closes, we hope to print out and mail all of the poems to the White House.

For guidelines on how to submit poems for this call, visit the Call for Poems of Resistance, Power & Resilience blog post. 

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Y Volver, volver!
by Claudia Rodriguez

Y volver volver

VOLVER

con la opresión

otra vez.

Llegare hasta donde estés

yo se perder, yo se perder

pero jamás me venceré.

History repeats itself

spins like a 45

but then there’s the

scratching- (sound funny)

I keep coming back

to the same place- like

literally. Like a poem

about writing- writing itself.

I teach at Cal State Dominguez Hills

Toro Pride Tuesdays

burgundy and gold horned

students, learners and spiel-lers

of knowledge , ideas bouncing

off those 70s concrete walls,

between the Japanese gardens

bonsai trees growing little

and back to CAMS, the high school

I went to when I was just a little

9^th grade girl

from Compton, which started to feel

little for me so I knew I had to go.

Looking for an alternative and CAMS high

landed on my map- my route in this road

less taken but now we’ve started a path.

CAMS is on the campus of Dominguez Hills

and back in 1990 I never fathomed

that in 2014 I’d be

back in my old English classroom, spinning another

story as “Prof. Rodriguez and students Breaking

Down the Gender Binary, And Other Ideas Crossing

Like Intersectionality.”

History repeats itself

It’s just like heaven

reincarnated to be

hovering up above

over you, I’m so over you

you, you my prop

I do whatever it takes

to rule over you

rules over you, to strap you down

these rules of how to rule the masses

It’s my privilege

my privilege that I do it to you

I stick it, twist around my stake

you’re cooked my little brownies

die, rot in the scent pool that you created

everyone is on my trail but I don’t lose

track of the ones I’ve laid, they  call it rise

to power for a reason.  Now come over here

fluff me up, you with your misdirected anger

and misinformation the economic pressure

you feel it on your lomo, that’s what the bad hombres

call it, when they put their back into it.

And you my chickie with your liberal views

your attraction to standing by all voyeuristic

as the position we’ve inherited all the way to our

veins wrecks havoc, too funny to turn away. Get a good

look in the mirror.  See the ghosts of oppressions past

it’s a hate that will not concede….

yes there may be lots of people that hate me

but there’s that one kid who doesn’t

come here and fluff me up

my desire it is magnetic- like a yuge

magnate- cause opposites attract

together bonding they stick together

through their fear of another planet

that’s what they sound like, like they’re

from another planet, this isn’t a turf war

we’re not gonna be smudged out

here WE come

come get your smudging

smoke screen against your hurt,

your broken place- your broken

place in society, you have us

pockets of macro-classes spinning our

lives like a saucer on a stick 

stuck in between my teeth

still speaking out against your lashing out

you didn’t break but you are broken

and you hurt at the memories we conjure up

cause we do it like Ouija speaking to our spirits

ending the vicarious pain, memories I have of you

nightmares I call them. So I stay woke

I’m alive

I survive

(deep heavy breathing) Please join me if you feel like it, please join

me so we can feel like, alike

like a….close my eyes

lets focus on our breath,

just our breath

our breath, our breath

our breath, I open

up my eyes and I see my people

I see women who stay lit

I see blacks who stay lit

Latinx who stay lit

Queers who stay lit

like a bomb fire, healing those cracks with our

breaths, we’re not done filling in the gaps

of what you call history,  one you wish

to forget it hurts, you feel unliked, not wanted

welcome to the nightmare. I’ve been holding

my breath waiting for the day that I can

finally say ‘They’re here”

“Woke white folk they are here”

History repeats itself and I am here today

and know that I’ll be here again

some tomorrow that our attraction

for each other, through our breaths

is a magnate for positivity, to, like superman

tuning back time flying around Earth backwards,

we hopefully  turning back some of the negativity

that has been spun out into our society.  Our breaths

none bigger than the other, none smaller

Y Volver, volver!

History repeats itself

spins like a 45

but then there’s the

scratching- (sound funny)

I keep coming back

to the same place- like

literally. Like a poem

about writing- writing itself.

I teach at Cal State Dominguez Hills

Toro Pride Tuesdays

burgundy and gold horned

students, learners and spiel-lers

of knowledge , ideas bouncing

off those 70s concrete walls,

between the Japanese gardens,

bonsai trees growing little

and back to CAMS, the high school

I went to when I was just a little

9^th grade girl

from Compton, which started to feel

little for me so I knew I had to go.

Looking for an alternative and CAMS high

landed on my map- my route in this road

less taken but now we’ve started a path.

CAMS is on the campus of Dominguez Hills

and back in 1990 I never fathomed

that in 2009 I’d be

back in my English classroom, spinning another

story as “Prof. Rodriguez and students Breaking

Down the Gender Binary, And Other Ideas Crossing

Like Intersectionality.”

History repeats itself

only if you don't understand the reason.

 7 years now adjuncting

at CSUDH

a campus of commuters

full time workers

part-time students,

commuters commuting not planting solid roots

on the campus.

59% low income

64% female,

53% Hispanic/Latino

17% African-American

So many older adults, not traditional

no prior traditions of degrees in the family tree

of first generation college students.

Mentoring not just lecturing

became my motto: group work and office hours

I tell them are about social networking

making those ties that will help us grow,

pull each other and learn to ask for help, among other

things. Over 50 letters of recommendation written,

5 independent studies and 4 classes with social learning components

are how I encourage my students to pursue higher level of education.

In service to my department I attend departmental meetings

and advocate on my students behalf.