It's Us: Irreversible Light Years of Solidarity in the form of a Group Poem

Last night’s writing session "irreversible as light years traveling to the open eye": witness, world-making, June Jordan, Palestine and South Africa was full of love, bravery, grief and deep listening. We practiced clearing what is blocking us, we examined what is moving us and how, we held space for falling apart and we called on generations of solidarity to power us in this moment. And we lingered…we stayed even beyond the scheduled time of the workshop to create this group poem, our portal back to each other, and our open door for you. May these words (read them aloud) strengthen the endurance of our love.

It’s Us

by the participants in “Witness and Worldmaking: June Jordan, Palestine and South Africa”

“And the babies cease alarm as mothers
raising arms
and heart high as the stars so far unseen
nevertheless hurl into the universe
a moving force
irreversible as light years
traveling to the open
eye”

June Jordan “Poem for South African Women”

We are the ones we call ancestors

We are the ones our sittis (grandmas) sat with

We are the ones our tay-tas (grandmothers) held in their cells

We are the ones who are holding up our hearts

We are the ones who breathe and listen

We are the ones that know the language of love in all fields of time

We are the ones who come in twos and threes and become we

We are the ones who bring peace

We are the ones who wake each other up from sleep

We are the ones who embrace tender tethering.

We are the ones hoping to know intimacy with grief

We are the ones who linger a little bit longer in love; we never hold back our love.

We are the ones who play and scheme to create abolition

We are the ones who say yes to the unscripting, unmapping, unmaking.

We are the ones who will snag and scrap the colonizers language while reweaving the tapestry of our collective belonging.

We are the ones who laugh and weep with forces that shape us.

We are the ones who get to stay and leave at the direction of our wise choice.

We are the ones who scream and in so doing, create a song that births the world anew.

We are the ones who come before and come after.

We are the ones who get us all free.

The recording of our workshop is here: https://sangodare.podia.com/irreversible-as-light-years-traveling-to-the-open-eye-witness-world-making-june-jordan-and-south-africa