Tribute – A Call To Action

This poem is a rewrite to an older piece I have highlighted in my blog before – Tribute – which was written to inspire artists to use their art to speak to atrocities in the world. It was inspired by the CULTURES OF RESISTANCE documentary.  

I have reworked it and lengthened it  so it is performance-ready; it will be a part of a local offering of spoken word here in Barbados, hosted by the Frank Collymore Hall showcasing the League of Extraordinary Poets (LXP), of which I am a part. For those who can make it, the LXP is going to be featured in the performance Word! Sound! Power! on March 11, at 6:15 PM.   

I was contemplating leaving the piece off the internet until after the show, but I don’t think anything can be lost by posting it here. Anyone who reads it here can get it enhanced by seeing it performed live if they are in Barbados.  Since the majority of you can’t see it live – here is the expanded piece.

TRIBUTE (A Call To Action)
This is a tribute to action –
Action inciting reaction
Against all factions of violence –
All pestilence…

This calls for
Artistic resistance!

This is a tribute of passion;
Fashioned through the cries of the desolate.
Whipped into submission by
Corporate slave masters
and their man-made
Disasters.
Greed reaches to get its hands
On our minerals
Casting us to the peripherals
Of existence
Sucking the life from our country of birth –
We are not worth the earth that we stand on.

*Scene change*

Is this how we sold earth’s birth-right?
When women can’t even give birth right
As their right to enjoy their first night of intimacy is destroyed?
Dignity cut away with no anesthetic?
All in the name of the cosmetic?
So society can deem them “marriage ready”
and say that they are “protecting their virginity?”
I mean, even children as young as four are violated
Penetrated with knife, scissors, razor blade or broken glass
No one is asked, just expected to spread wide and take it
“We don’t know why we do it, but we won’t stop ….
Our religion and our elders require it….”
So – that’s it?

*scene change*

And … just like that – another mother cries
Another young man shuts his eyes
And dies
Violent cracks of thunder signal
Murders all across the world –
Lives callously destroyed
Provoked by brutality
Dispensing slaughter like currency
Robbing children of innocence.
As guns replace toys
And little African boys
Become cold blooded killers
This is real life, not TNT thrillers…

*scene change*

When religions fight against each other
Each one claiming the same sacred spot…
When each one claims they are right
Who suffers?
How about the people – displaced
Removed from their homes and disgraced because of prophecy?
Sometimes “reasons” feel like props, you see –
‘Cause those under martial law don’t find it funny
When guns bark and bodies lay still, finally….
No matter who wins – people lose.

This is a call for an artistic resistance
With persistence,
Using our art to start a revolution:
Stir up confusion
And upset the apple cart of the guilty.
Here, on this stage, I release a call clearly
And, really,
peace is the real reality I strive for

So – what I am saying is …

As we write, sing, dance or act
Let’s make a pact
Our art will not be for enjoyment only
But to provide mental nourishment.
Truly being a moral yardstick
Highlighting conflict
And expressing the conscience
that is seemingly un-pricked
By the world.

This is a tribute to action –
Action inciting reaction
Against all factions of violence –
All pestilence…

This calls for
Artistic resistance!