I SAID I LOVED YOU: June Jordan and Insisting on Peace
Last week at 6 am Pacific Time and 5:30pm Iran Standard time a group of people gathered to write about peace, about the possibility of peace in the face of intergenerational trauma and loss. About the triggering harm of multiple forms of war. About what we wanted about who we loved. This happened because Tala Khanmalek, a child of Iranian immigrants asked to use a chant I had offered before using June Jordan’s phrase and theory “Love is lifeforce” at a protest against the sudden escalation of war in the first days of the year. Tala has written more about this here. Inspired by Jordan’s poem Intifada Incantation, which is a love poem, and also her poem “Moving Towards Home” to work through what we “do not wish to speak about” what we “need to talk about” and who have have become and are becoming in the face of our impossible desires for peace. We are sharing with you (one arrangement of) the poem that we created out of our time together. It is best read aloud. Like June Jordan’s poem it is in all capital letters because we insist.
P.S. I have just added a new writing workshop for January 30th in solidarity with the Black mothers of Durham and the Bay Area who are facing violent neglect and armed eviction drawing on June Jordan’s concept of living room. Living Room: A Writing Workshop on Housing as a Human Right.
Sign up remains open for Of Generators and Survival: Listening for Audre Lorde When the Power’s Out (January 23) and Who Taught You to Dream (on King Day aka Pat Parker’s Birthday)
I SAID I LOVED YOU
By the participants in the “I SAID I LOVED YOU”: June Jordan and the Insistent Poetics of Peace workshop
“I SAID I LOVED YOU AND I WANTED
GENOCIDE TO STOP”
-from Intifada Incantation by June Jordan
I SAID I LOVED YOU AND I WANTED
HOME
I SAID I LOVED YOU AND I WANTED
WATER
I SAID I LOVED YOU AND I WANTED
DIGNITY BREATHING
I SAID I LOVED YOU AND I WANTED
SPACE TO NEED
I SAID I LOVED YOU AND I WANTED
TO BEND TIME
I SAID I LOVED YOU AND I WANTED
MOVEMENT
I SAID I LOVED YOU AND I WANTED
CONNECTION
I SAID I LOVED YOU AND I WANTED
TOUCH
I SAID I LOVED YOU AND I WANTED
GRACE
I SAID I LOVED YOU AND I WANTED
HEALING
I SAID I LOVED YOU AND I WANTED
TO BE SEEN
I SAID I LOVED YOU AND I WANTED
TO SPEAK ESPECIALLY WHEN MY VOICE WAS QUIVERING
I SAID I LOVED YOU AND I WANTED
YOU TO ALWAYS KNOW IT
I SAID I LOVED YOU AND I WANTED
YOU TO NEVER DIE
I SAID I LOVED YOU AND I WANTED
YOU TO HEAR
I SAID I LOVED YOU AND I WANTED
YOU TO SAY IT BACK
I SAID I LOVED YOU AND I WANTED
BACK WHAT WE HAD COST EACH OTHER
I SAID I LOVED YOU AND I WANTED
TO RETURN
I SAID I LOVED YOU AND I WANTED
YOU TO NEVER BE TORTURED IN PRISON
I SAID I LOVED YOU AND I WANTED
THE VIOLATION TO NEVER HAVE HAPPENED
TO NEVER HAPPEN AGAIN
I SAID I LOVED YOU AND I WANTED
US
I SAID I LOVED YOU AND I WANTED
TO PROTECT US
I SAID I LOVED YOU AND I WANTED
TO PROTECT YOU
I SAID I LOVED YOU AND I WANTED
TO BE PROTECTED
I SAID I LOVED YOU AND I WANTED
THERE TO BE NO NEED FOR PROTECTION
I SAID I LOVED YOU AND I WANTED
EVERYONE SAFE AT HOME
I SAID I LOVED YOU AND I WANTED
EVERYONE TO FEEL SAFE WHERE THEY SLEEP
I SAID I LOVED YOU AND I WANTED
TO BE BETTER WITH YOU
I SAID I LOVED YOU AND I WANTED
WE
I SAID I LOVED YOU AND I WANTED
YOU WE US TO FEEL GOOD TO FEEL JOY
I SAID I LOVED YOU AND I WANTED
EVERY SUNRISE
I SAID I LOVED YOU AND I WANTED
THE WHOLE SKY
