(Source: opulate)
Never to Forget
Arundhati Roy
To love.
To be loved.
To never forget your own insignificance,
To never get used to the unspeakable violence
and the vulgar disparity of life around you.
To seek joy in the saddest places.
To pursue beauty to its lair.
To never simplify what is complicated
or complicate what is simple.
To respect strength, never power.
Above all, to watch.
To try and understand.
To never look away.
And never, never to forget.
[poem] the dog barks
the dog barks
within the fence, but
outside the house.
through the cold of winter,
the searing dry of summer, and
the rains between them -
the dog barks.
barking at the house
brings food or the boot;
teaching the dog restraint.
barking at the bodies
outside the fence,
the dog seeks company
in the faces of fear.
outside the fence
there are fields and trees,
food in unseen kitchens,
the touch of strangers
that the dog will never know,
and the dog barks.
———
All rights reserved, 2013
FTM Slam Poem
Morgan Anthony
Honoring la mujer peligrosa, Tatiana de la Tierra…QDEP
Honoring la mujer peligrosa, Tatiana de la Tierra…QDEP
Spoken word poet Ee’da performs her piece “Fade to White”
[TW: colorism]
(Source: oakfool)
Stone Telling 8 is up! & as we say in the intro:
In “Snowbound in Hamadan,” Sofia Samatar says: “The anthologist’s art / is the art of choice.” This issue’s poems create us from bronze and bone, from names and grandmother’s soup, from a beloved one’s hair and from a dead man’s manuscript pages. Yet other poems speak of violent acts — not of creation but of construction, acts of naming us into a shape we are not, or do not wish to hold. They speak of resistance, sometimes violent, sometimes quiet, blooming — like the speaker in Adrienne J. Odasso’s “Tables Turned” — “much brighter, fire-wild orchid, than you’d permit”; they reclaim a right to choose. And so we come full circle to the anthologist, and the art of telling and retelling our stories until they grow fire-wild through hurts and blessings both.
Spoken Word: “I’ve Had Peace” - Plus Shout-Outs! (by poeticoldsoul)
For the Men Who Still Don’t Get It
What if
all women were bigger and stronger than you
And thought they were smarter
What if
women were the ones who started wars
What if
too many of your friends had been raped by women wielding giant dildos
and no K-Y Jelly
What if
the state trooper
who pulled you over on the New Jersey Turnpike
was a woman
and carried a gun
What if
the ability to menstruate
was the prerequisite for most high-paying jobs
What if
your attractiveness to women depended
on the size of your penis
What if
every time women saw you
they’d hoot and make jerking motions with their hands
What if
women were always making jokes
about how ugly penises are
and how bad sperm tastes
What if
you had to explain what’s wrong with your car
to big sweaty women with greasy hands
who stared at your crotch
In a garage where you are surrounded
by posters of naked men with hard-ons
What if
men’s magazines featured cover photos
of 14-year-old boys
with socks
tucked into the front of their jeans
and articles like:
“How to tell if your wife is unfaithful”
or
“What your doctor won’t tell you about your prostate”
or
“The truth about impotence”
What if
the doctor who examined your prostate
was a woman
and called you “Honey”
What if
You had to inhale your boss’s stale cigar breath
as she insisted that sleeping with her
was part of the job
What if
You couldn’t get away because
the company dress code required
you wear shoes
designed to keep you from running
And what if
after all that
women still wanted you
to love them.- Carol Diehl
I google’d manliest man and this fella came up.
I am a sad sad sad little man today.
