Combahee Survival: Sprung!!!!!!

[Lex]

“Above all else, our politics initially sprang from the shared belief that Black women are inherently valuable, that our liberation is a necessity not as an adjunct to somebody else’s but because of our need as human persons for autonomy.”
Complete the poem:

above

sprang shared

liberation

need

Post your poems below or email us at [e-mail]

For example: Alexis Charles who says she usually does NOT write poetry contributed this beautiful elaboration:

1. Not from ABOVE

But from within.

You gave life to words.

That gave me life.

Words that

SPRANG from our SHARED oppressions, fears, dreams and joys.

Calling for our LIBERATION.

Illuminating our NEED.

2. When I had lost faith in everything ABOVE.
What SPRANG from the depths of your hearts.
Let me know my pain was SHARED.
The not so quiet call for LIBERATION
Those words
“black women are inherently valuable”
Held me softly, tenderly, gently,
Quieted the dull aching NEED
Wrapped me in love and solidarity

3.

we
ABOVE
Where do exist?
below
I
Your words

S
P
R
A
iNto motion a well-spring of truth, knowledge and love gushing from the valleys of your thoughts,
G through the canyons of your silences, over the cliffs of your screams.

I SHARED my fears and dreams with you and I realized I’m not the only one

MyLIfeisnotanisolatedabBERATION

In moments of NEED you
answer.’


Cynthia bringing the light!

Cynthia bringing the light!

Cynthia Oka, radical mama and feminist indigenous rights organizer in Vancouver wrote:

5:47 am

pungent is the aching flesh over hard bone

it is no luxury to choose

liberation

rising dawn

droplets of sun on my skin

stinging like ice

i must search again

build dig tear from towers of tyranny

hope

all that demands our breaking

a million footsteps marching on my chest

fear not fear not

the arms of my mothers

spears sprang against cannons

today so too do mine

that is my blood spilled shared

that is my life-giving love

that is my claim

on freedom

above this colonial landscape

i embalm my body

and choose to grace this day

with my presence

i am no finely cut diamond

i am the raw earth

on which your build your throne

i desire no queenhood

i am higher than price

stars breaking in sky

this is my spirit

cage me wage me

snap every joint

i rewrite the universe

through my undoing

we are our prophets

persistent as dew

fear not fear not

we are all we need

[m diggity]

----------------
plow on
mules of this earth
and sing her liberation.
above ground
we sprang eternal
wiped mercury from our eyes
shared the silver need of memory
and held quiet the burst--
the break
of our day.

mmw

[Kismet]

For Anita and Margaret

above the hole in my chest
where i fought alabaster mannequins
scraped thin and wasted with desire
where i brought head to wall in search of
a tin woman's heart

sprang shared visions of
beautiful black girl dreams
re-laid and re-laid
in the bosoms of our mothers, our sisters
our lovers
tucked like flowers
in the softness of our hips and thighs
bursting full of
possibility

a liberation

and a need

[Moya]

there is nothing above you

for we all sprang from a shared source.

liberation is remembering that we

need each other to be Whole.