Poems of Resistance, Power & Resilience – Nancy Boutilier

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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Unaugural Poem #1: UNPRESIDENTED

by Nancy Boutilier

I have been unpresidented.

In exchange for a man of vision


and generosity


of good humor and inclusivity,


I am handed 


a man of carelessness


and ego


of cruel playground humor


and ego


of duplicity and studied lies


and unleashed ego


who rates


no inauguration


that I will witness 


and so I dedicate myself to his 


Unauguration 


declare myself an Unaugural poet


and I will witness


for now


for the future


four years