the slavery poems : channeling the pain of the past

  Greetings, friends. I want to share these poems which I wrote as a series back in 1998. I felt as though I was listening to spirits tell their stories. I hope very sincerely they will not offend anyone in the verbal dialect style. I wrote down what I heard in my spirit and heart. The language used was the way I heard the voices speaking of their suffering. It's not meant to be white girl looking down on the ignorant English mistakes. I felt if I wrote it in modern standard English it would lose something. Please talk to me if you have a problem with the style.I worried so much about that problem that I have not published these before. Now I want to give you these.

part 1:

listening to other voices
men and women of the past
captive
held against their will
held and abused
yet still they prayed
and gave birth
to our new peoples
of the americas
my head aches
yet I will let them
speak through me
It will not break me apart
to let them come
and whisper weep and shout
their stories
speak through me


slavery quilt

another quilt is scratching
at the back of my brain
about slavery
I can hear them calling
"speak
of our tears our blood
raped by the plantation owner
no hope of days of peace
until I grow too big
with his child
and he owns me
if only I was ugly
they say the child will be light
and then She
will hate me"

will it hurt me to make it?
will it hurt them to see it?
will it hurt my friends to help me
make it?
or is it a quilt
for healing
go into the dark
speak out
give us a voice
remember us
remember us