Promises
for June Jordan
Tonight I call
because I know you haven't heard
& because you talk to me
& I can look into your eyes—
Tonight I call saying
I must tell you this:
who we lost today...
And I I I
who would resist conforming
to conceit will lay these words
across this page
to say at this discursive riverside
because she laid her body
had to lay it
laid it down
I will say
these are my tears
for the laying down
these are my tears and my tears
are the River and the river is all
I occupy
is river called mine
is river called Yours
is what is Ours is what is shared
is river of trails
is trail of tears
is tale of many
many years
inside
as river of dreams
as life and death
and all the promises in
between
everything built and
all undone
is a word like seems
in the river that's real
that's flowing
that holds the coming
and the going
of the I like all the I's
for the
in
between
and
I I I
will keep the river
called must
called hope
alive
saying I I I
in my mind
alive
in my thinking
alive
in my being
will keep it
alive
alive in the comma
alive in the question
alive in every semi-colon
not in the going
the going away gone
but in the keep it
going long & strong
like the river of is
river that reminds
river that calls
for the loosening mask
river that knows itself
: obstacle to genocide
looking for present eyes
mouths that are ready
in the each one teach one
policy of being
because today
she was kissed by the river
she was kissed and taken up
like her kissing god
like her saying goodbye
between
the released
among the loosened
ahead of the tightened and unchanged
and now I call saying I can't believe
Who we lost today—
And why why why
tell tales
why say
what turmoil
in the land
why tell
what turmoil
in havoc-breasts
why say
what dead zones
in zones of death
why utter the word
deformities
in humans
and frogs
why report
the beetle in dung
of nuclear wreckage
and chemical waste
why speak of goiters
in Lake Superior trout
or state with clarity even
prosaically spread rates
of carcinogenic states
why tell of molecular chaos
in testicular cells like
chaos at test sites like
a trial gone wrong
why spell chaos in the body
the body the earth
the earth
the body
the chaos
the human
the body
repository ground
like target zeroed
like zero
zeroed in on
like ground for argument
the body the Nation
the ground
the body the Nation
the body formed
the National body
of IT-dom bringing
every body down
bringing ITself so close to the end like
end-of-the-line
like hardly no time left at all
to fix it and start ourselves again—
and why why why tell—
Because this
is the peaceful soldiering
she'd say
this taking up
of every poem
this standing up
of every human as
one's own called worthy
called being called poem
that interjects with
word and act
interjects between
pen and thought a
poem that stands
against the toxic
against agendas
of bullets & bombs
And this is the river to which I've come
she told and taught saying
resistance is resistance to lay
your body down
and I I I
will look
with
through
your own
my own
all these eyes
I will be another loosening mask
the talk going on
the oil of name
the lamp in time
a possibility of self in all the lines
that page after page run on in letters
of human streaming dropletted gain so:
let the river run for me
let it fill with helpful rain
let it be pre-occupation
knowing the names and sounds
let it be voice
the throat of Harlem
let it be Phillip's Neighborhood
let it be Child of the Bomb
that knows its root
to never forget the obstacles
in thought that don't oppose
the obstacles of ground-zeroed
pock-marking views
voiding this day into that
emptying this country into that
draining this time from that
obstacles in a word like owed
obstacles in the words past due
let me be root that says I am
root that says will be
root to offer other sounds
in a language that will sing
this song and that
as language for a poem
will speak in Tetum if it can
will speak in Yoruba learn Croatian
speak in Spanish and in French
make a sound
will click * the tongue
(* * * / * * * / * * * )
kako si ti
me llamo río
je vais chanter:
ayé le o ayé le o
okoro ima okoro wa
I will sing
a searching song
in an each one teach one quality
rejecting
apartheid homicide infanticide
found in Unioned Address
refuting any state of hanging of chads
a song to break bad news
heal beaten ground
change uniformed breath of Axised Rhetoric
bom-bommed toward well-oiled lines
of speeches positioned
markets targeted
perception controlled
Evil sold in bytes of sound
like promises that cannot breathe
promises that fail
promises that fall
into rivers like
bad rain
and I will be name
saying name
living in Congo
Indonesia Bosnia Brazil
Venezuela Palestine and Pakistan
and Israel in India
and Galveston Los Angeles
and Washington D.C.
and I will be that part
of District called We
who finally free the people
called Leonard Peltier
who finally free the people
called Mumia Abu-Jamal
I will be We saying We are
saying the People of Peoples
called People of can
as People of will
crossing this river and that
wearing each loosening mask
called Arab
called Jew
called German
American
Ojibwe
Sioux
called Slav
Parisian
Hispanic
Mexican
African
Cuban
Caribbean
Caucasian
mixed-race
all-gender
carrying it
called to include
the loosening way
saying come on
come on
in the
fusion
called river
in the river
moving on
And I will be looking
into those eyes
And I will be looking out
for those eyes
And I will be
the loosening words in breath
with anyone who talks to me
I will be
stain cross blood grass fire water soil air
mother father moon sun Buddhist Zen
Atheist Muslim Christian Orthodox
crying Allah crying Yahweh
Inanna MA OM
I will be
every person born
to weep at the feet of murdered ones
I will be the Disappeared
speaking the Disappeared
be held in every military cell
be the number none could call
the address written to
the not-in-my-name dot
organizing voice
as verb that does
verb that is
saying
I haven't forgotten
saying
I know who I am
I am River
I am bed
called root
like web
I am word of flesh
making flow down life
as living water
of poems
7/4/02
Promises is dedicated to, and written in memory of, the poet June Jordan who died of breast cancer on June 14, 2002. Some of the italicized lines in this poem are taken from "Poem for a Young Poet," and "Study # 2 for b.b.l.," in Kissing God Goodbye, by June Jordan. Tetum is the most predominant indigenous language in East Timor (* * * / * * * / * * *) represents the dental tongue-clicking of South African aboriginal language (in the poem I click it using the 6/8 "abakuá" percussive rhythm of Havana, Cuba); kako si ti (Croatian): "how are you;" me llamo río (Spanish): "my name is river;" je vais chanter (French): "I’m going to sing;" and part of a song to Chango in Afro-Cuban Santería, ayé le o, ayé le o / okoro ima, okoro wa has double meaning: "Spirits plague this world, spirits plague this world (The world is cruel, the world is cruel) / The oricha is thunder, our oricha (The deep calabash [gourd] is not seen, the deep calabash is searched for.) See Katherine J. Hagedorn, Divine Utterances: the Performances of Afro-Cuban Santería (The Smithsonian Institution, 2001), 52.
Leigh Herrick is a poet, writer and collaborator. Her recent performances include the MN Fringe Festival, Open Book's Tellabration and IntermediaArts' Spirit in the House (Spring 2008). In addition to her 2004 CD, Just War, her poems have appeared most recently in Visions-International, XCP: Streetnotes (Spring 2008), and Howling Dog Press' 2007 anthology, Cost of Freedom. check her out at www.mnartists.org/Leigh_Herrick.
Leigh Herrick's reading of Promises is presented here as an .mp4 file. It will require a broadband connection. If you have a fast connection but have trouble viewing it, try installing QuickTime.
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