WUNRN
By Shailja Patel - http://www.shailja.com:80/
Recited by Shailja Patel at the 11th
International AWID Forum
Theme: The Power of Movements
POEM
- WHAT
MOVES US
Some moments, history comes to us and says:
What do you truly want?
We tremble.
Often we run.
From the terrifying possibility
that we could choose
movement.
That we could begin
exactly where we are
in all our screwed-up imperfection.
Some days we stand before our world
and the question
vibrates the air around us:
What do you choose?
This day?
This moment?
This
heartstopping glorious adventure?
There's strong like patriarchy
strong like institutions
strong like two-billion dollars a day
military occupations, spiked
with genocide, anchored
in neoliberal greed, buttressed
by terror, designed to deliver 200-volt shocks
on contact.
Then there's the strength of what flows.
Tears, grief, memory.
Blood, energy, breath.
Collective action.
The strength of what moves us
opens our throats, ignites our hips
unleashes our voices.
Puts the move
back into movement, distils the motion
from emotion.
Movement strong as a river.
Current of joyful resilience.
Wave and curl, crash and swirl
patterns that constantly change.
Movers who channel each day
the courage of divers
to plunge again
into this churning water.
Thankful
for what yields results, curious
about what does not.
Building lung capacity to finally embrace
the wholeness of our struggles
exactly as they are.
Some moments, life asks of us:
What do you hope?
There's hope like a battleground
hope that's all soundbites
hope that rehashes a thousand manifestos.
What we intend, believe, imagine
what we plan, propose and dream
what we say, expect, pretend, how we think
things should look.
Then there's the truth on the ground.
What we show up for
each day
with our fearful, angry,
tired, clumsy selves.
With our complex, brilliant,
wounded, kickass selves.
And we grapple with the chasms
of all that's gone before.
We negotiate the heartbreak
of decades of betrayal.
We push ourselves to replace
but with and,
no with how,
steel ourselves to listen
to what enrages us most.
We stretch our brains and wills
until we feel it,
to hard analysis
until we get it
unpack systems, structures, models
mine the stories, map the data
'til we know
what works and what does not.
What truly moves us.
Some years, life comes to us and says:
What do you know?
Why we kept at it, for forty, fifty years.
Why we have never regretted it.
That this movement
still moves us
in our guts, our hips, our hearts
That this laughter
this trust
this earned and tried and tested respect
is a house we have built,
brick by brick
and it will hold.
Some mornings life wakes us up
sets our hearts beating
sets our nerves thrumming
warns us
we''re about to leap
into our iciest fear
our largest growth
our most piercing joy.
Some mornings,
We take a huge breath, say
Yes
to it all.
Some evenings, life wraps us round
in the softness of twilight,
asks:
What are you waiting for?
Truth. Justice. Reparation. Healing.
In our lifetimes. In our lifetimes. In
Our
Lifetimes.
Each day, love comes to us and says:
What will you show up for?
What, in the end, is the truth of your heart?
We answer with our bodies.
We show up
for the struggle.
We show up
for each other.
We show up
just as we are.
Precious, flawed
limited, magnificent.
Human.
We show up
for history.
We choose
the power of movement.
We love
by showing up.
Copyright Shailja Patel 2008. All Rights Reserved.
================================================================
To contact the list administrator, or to leave the list, send an email to: wunrn_listserve-request@lists.wunrn.com.
Thank you.