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Poetry: The World We Want is US

Poetry: The World We Want is US
Wed, 4/4/2012 - by Alice Walker
This article originally appeared on Occupy Writers

Photo: Michael Eldreth/Flickr. Dr Cornel West

the joyful news of your arrest

this sunday morning everything

is bringing tears.

in church this morning

not a church anyone from my childhood

would

recognize

as church

a brother singing

ecstatic

about the bigness of love

and then this moment

news of your arrest

on the steps of the supreme court

a place of intrigue and distrust;

news of the illegal sign you carried

that you probably made yourself:

Poverty Is The Greatest Violence Of All.

brother cornel. brother west.

what a joy it is

to hear this news of you.

that you have not forgotten

what our best people taught us

as they rose to meet their day:

not to be silent

not to fade into the shadows

not to live and die in vain.

But to glorify

the love that demands

we stand

in danger

shaking off

our chains.

The World We Want Is Us

It moves my heart to see your awakened faces;

the look of “aha!”

shining, finally, in

so many

wide open eyes.

Yes, we are the 99%

all of us

refusing to forget

each other

no matter, in our hunger, what crumbs

are dropped by

the 1%.

The world we want is on the way; Arundhati

and now we

are

hearing her breathing.

That world we want is Us; united; already moving

into it.

 

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Posted 3 weeks 3 days ago

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Posted 1 month 1 week ago

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Posted 1 month 2 weeks ago

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Posted 3 weeks 3 days ago

Much like the resistance to AI data centers, the opposition to Flock surveillance cameras has brought the left and the right together against billionaires who are trying to force America into becoming even more of a police state.

The country’s new prime minister, Andy Burnham, has promised a break from the politics of the last 40 years—realizing more broadly that Labour must stand up for the 99% against big business, or the party will become irrelevant.