Poems of Persistence, Solidarity, and Refuge – Shooooz

We are each other's harvest; we are each other's business; we are each other's magnitude and bond.  ― Gwendolyn Brooks  

As we journey through political, economic, and global health crises, we turn to poetry to share truths that unearth underlying causes, illuminate impacts, and insist on transformative change. For many of us, today’s challenges are not new. The struggle of isolation, economic insecurity, inadequate medical care, deadly institutionalized negligence, governmental decisions that put Black, Brown, Indigenous, Asian, disabled, sick, and other structurally precarious people at greater risk are not new. Today, many more people are experiencing the vulnerability of these unrelenting issues. We recognize this opportunity for a heightened awareness of how our very survival depends on one another.

Poetry can help keep the flame of resilience, solidarity, and resistance alive in us. It can help us process and move through grief, anger, loneliness. Poetry can be a comfort when the most necessary actions are to rest and recover. It can remind us of what’s at stake, that our lives and legacy are worth the fight. As cultural workers, we know that culture shapes our political and social imagination at a foundational level. As poets, we can use poetry to map what is, what has been, and possibly, the way forward, including the reasons not to return to what does not honor and protect our lives, our communities, and our planet.

We asked poets to give us the words they chant to get out of bed, to raise their fists, to encourage their kin, to remind us, as this crisis does, that “we are each other’s business; we are each other’s magnitude and bond.” To read all of these poems, visit Split This Rock’s website.

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Oh, Angry America
By Shooooz

I took a walk round the block           today
feeling you

                                                    step for step

behind me –        it surprised me because

I was also seeing you

                                                       in parallel

behind my brother                a block away.

like Satan

you manage to be everywhere

when I quicken my pace I feel you match it

                                                               I imagine

it must be weird for you,                 who wants

so badly to pull ahead                             to find

yourself always a few steps behind

                                                          giving chase

                                                               by choice.

but like Satan

you manage to be everywhere

everywhere, except

                                                            in the lead

where you want to be

                                                                  instead

you paint maps in hot lead             charting a

path to your supremacy

                                                         uncontested

an empty playing field is the only one     you

consider fair.

so like Satan

you manage to be everywhere

and when I beg you to lift those hands off of

me                                                 or my brother

you raise them

                                in a mockery of surrender

                                                               or terror

you beg me

                              with laughter in your voice

not to hurt you         as you curl three fingers

to make a gun of your fist

                      lead ready to scream from flesh

and when I                      look down the barrel

                                        of your pointed finger

and when I            gather my nerve to charge

at you                          you are no longer there

and when I               look up from the ground

I find your steel-eyed stare.

‘cause like Satan

you manage to be everywhere

Split This Rock · Shooooz_Oh_Angry_America_Audio

Listen as Shooooz reads "Oh, Angry America."