No, these poems of protest won’t fix the world. But if words didn’t carry some measure of power, they wouldn’t be censored. These 15 poets burn the page (and the screen) with their poems of protest.
“Let Them Not Say” by Jane Hirshfield, Author of The Beauty
Excerpt: Let them not say: we did not see it. We saw. Let them not say: we did not hear it. Let them not say: they did not taste it. We ate, we trembled. Let them not say: it was not spoken, not written.
“Dragons” by Sarah Kay, author of No Matter the Wreckage
Excerpt: My father and brother were born with cannonball fists. Avalanche tongues. They know how to light flame to the smallest injustice. How to erupt into fireworks from the inside. The silent anger too. They are capable of keeping the engine humming, the deep vibration of fury warm underneath. Me- I was not born with enough fuel. My anger often melts into sadness, it will just disintegrate into shame or fear, my clenched teeth release into chatter,
“How To Fight” by Clint Smith, author of Counting Descent
Excerpt: My favorite part of class was always the spelling bee. One by one children would slip on syllables until there were only a few of us left. We weren’t allowed to write anything down as we stood in front of the class, so I used my fingers to trace an outline in the air of words Mrs. Roberts read from her blue dictionary.
“Good Bones” by Maggie Smith, author of The Well Speaks Of Its Own Poison
Excerpt: Life is short, though I keep this from my children. Life is short, and I’ve shortened mine in a thousand delicious, ill-advised ways, a thousand deliciously ill-advised ways I’ll keep from my children. The world is at least fifty percent terrible, and that’s a conservative estimate, though I keep this from my children.
By Rupi Kaur, author of Milk and Honey
A photo posted by rupi kaur (@rupikaur_) on Jan 21, 2017 at 3:48pm PST
10 Poems of Protest To Read Later
And since poetry is something you have to hold singly, bookmark this post and come back later to read ten more poems that speak of fighting, equality, injustices, and protest. I’ve given a taste of each below. From “There Is A Street Named After Martin Luther King Jr. In Every City” by Hanif Willis-Abdurraqib “especially the ones where blood sprints / from a black chest to color the earth / a darkened brown / the color of a black mother’s skin” From “Power” by Audre Lorde: “The difference between poetry and rhetoric is being ready to kill yourself instead of your children.” From “I Feel Most Colored When I Am Thrown Against A Sharp White Background: An Elegy” by Morgan Parker: “I feel most colored when I am the punch line. When I am the trigger.” From “Let America Be American Again” by Langston Hughes: “O, let America be America again— The land that never has been yet— And yet must be—the land where every man is free.” From “Girl With Red Bicycle” by Gypsy Yo: “But she squeezes her fists until knuckle-white hands become walls her pride can lean on.” From “Revenge” by e.c.c. poetry: “We know everything we do is so the kids after us will be able to follow something towards safety; what can I call us but lighthouse,” From “Somewhere In America” by Belissa Escobedo, Rhiannon McGavin, and Zariya Allen: “You never told us what we weren’t allowed to say We just learned how to hold our tongues Now somewhere in America, there is a child holding a copy of “Catcher in the Rye” and there is a child holding a gun” From “Let Us Now” by Lena Khalaf Tuffaha: “we used our science and our god to make a woman less than the wombs that first housed us” From “Town Watches Them Take Alfonso” by Ilya Kaminsky: “What we don’t say we carry in our suitcases, coat pockets, our nostrils.” From “Interrogation of the Hanged Man” by Monica Youn: “What is your face? A house, of sorts. What is your foot? A chipped stone blade.” The most rebellious act can be sharing words. Let’s do that. I’ve only covered 15 here. Share your favorite poems of protest in the comments below, and make sure to include information for where we can find the poet’s work.
