Poems of Resistance, Power & Resilience – Wendi White

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, explicitly condones or implies a call for violence, 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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A Good Day to Win
by Wendi White

The beginnings nears

as darkness gathers

on the Dakota plains.

The Souix stand on their rock

for months despite rubber bullets,

concussion grenades,

concrete blockades designed

to cut them off, but somehow

the opposite occurs.

Iktomi tricks the wasichu

into giving back some of what they stole

and the world who cared little

for the Lakota's fate cheered,

and the spirit of Crazy Horse,

Red Cloud and Black Elk rose

like clean water gushing forth

to wash the people's hearts and hands,

turning the medicine wheel

toward some great advent 

as yet unknown.