Tuesday, January 31, 2017

Poems of Resistance, Power & Resilience – Nancy Boutilier

Close up image of a microphone on a stage. The audience that is facing the microphone is blurred, appearing as a myriad of colors (red, white, green, yellow, etc.)
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

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