Wonderful. The poetry of pain. Hugs, Barbara
A Million Miles….(My Story)
Wonderful. The poetry of pain. Hugs, Barbara
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Every 3 Minutes – Every 5 Minutes
With No Immediate Cause
by Ntozake Shange
every 3 minutes a woman is beaten
every five minutes a
woman is raped/every ten minutes
a lil girl is molested
yet i rode the subway today
i sat next to an old man who
may have beaten his old wife
3 minutes ago or 3 days ago/30 years ago
he might have sodomized his
daughter but i sat there
cuz the young man on the train
might beat some young women
later in the day or tomorrow
i might not shut my door fast
enuf/push hard enuf
every 3 minutes it happens
some woman’s innocence
rushes to her checks/pours from her mouth
like the betsy wetsy dolls have been torn
apart/their mouths
menses red & split/every
three minutes a shoulder
is jammed through plaster and the oven door/
chairs push through the rib cage/hot water or
boiling sperm decorate her body
i rode the subway today
& bought a paper from a
man who might
have held his old lady onto
a hot pressing iron/i dont know
maybe he catches lil girls in the
park & rips open their behinds
with steel rods/i can’t decide
what he might have done i only
know every 3 minutes
every 5 minutes every 10 minutes/so
i bought the paper
looking for the announcement
the discovery/of that dismembered
woman’s body/the
victims have not all been
identified/today they are
naked and dead/refuse to
testify/one girl out of 10’s not
coherent/i took the coffee
& spit it up/i found an
announcement/not the woman’s
bloated body in the river/floating
not the child bleeding in the
59th street corridor/not the baby
broken on the floor/
“there is some concern
that alleged battered women
might start to murder their
husbands and lovers with no
immediate cause”
I spit up i vomit i am screaming
we all have immediate cause
every 3 minutes
every 5 minutes
every 10 minutes
every day
women’s bodies are found
in alleys & bedrooms/at the top of the stairs
before i ride the subway/buy a paper/drink
coffee/i must know/
have you hurt a woman today
did you beat a woman today
throw a child across a room
are the lil girl’s panties
in yr pocket
did you hurt a woman today
i have to ask these obscene questions
the authorities require me to
establish
immediate cause
every three minutes
every five minutes
every ten minutes
every day.
Born Paulette Williams in Trenton, New Jersey, Ntozake Shange took her pseudonym as an expression of her anger at the dilemma of being a black woman. In Zulu the name means “she who comes with her own things.” / “she who walks like a lion.” She was educated at Barnard College and the University of Southern California.
Pacific Ocean
Weekly Photo Challenge: Summer Lovin’
Very lovely. A wonderful post. Hugs, Barbara
Images From A Mid Summer Wedding ❤ ❤ ❤
A Kiss
I Captured A Kiss as the bride and groom serenaded each other at the reception
Bridesmaid and friends
A walk through Summer grasses Before the Wedding
The Bride is ostensibly hiding behind a Tardis so the groom won’t see her. Note the grass is brown this summer…
Weekly Photo Challenge Summer Lovin’ The assignment is to show something I love about Summer What’s not to love about a Mid-Summer Wedding?
Caring for living things
Me, “The Way ” Gaza, Israel, and Desmund Tutu
There are times when I question myself as far as what my place is in regards to causes and the injustices in our world. I empathize with the young Buddha as he explored the world outside his palace for the first time as a young child. He saw the plows opening the earth and was amazed with what he saw, he saw mother earth being cut open and violated. He saw the poor and the helpless all the while questioning why and how or what he could or should do about it. I am of course not Buddha I am a spiritual being living as a simple man.
–
I have been studying so many different spiritual perspectives shared by so many spiritual beings past and present as well as the laws that govern our Universe as the great Lau Tzu or Buddha may have expressed it “The Way or…
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Let me be your guide
How A Bus Is Changing The Lives Of The Homeless..
Most of us have suffered through the frustration of needing to quickly get ready for work, only to have to wait for a roommate to finish his shower. Now imagine having to share that shower with not one or two other people, but hundreds.
That’s precisely the situation facing San Francisco’s estimated 6,436 homeless residents, who currently have just seven places in the city where they can shower.
But now an old public bus in San Francisco has been converted into a portable shower station to provide hygienic bathrooms to the homeless.
The bus, converted by nonprofit LavaMae, contains two private showers and toilets and provides towels and soap. The creators say it’s more about providing individual comfort than ending homelessness.
But despite the fact that the showers could help some homeless people stay clean as public showers around the city close, they don’t enjoy unanimous support.
Some critics say…
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Truth rendered with small touches of light.
Well done!
Sorolla and America special exhibit at San Diego Museum of Art.
Light is the physical means by which my eyes see. But I often don’t see true light.
Light is a mixture of myriad colors. But I often don’t see those many colors.
Yesterday I was struck by a few small touches of rare light. My eyes widened with astonishment during a few joyful, delicious moments of revelation.
I was very fortunate and privileged to be a given a special tour of the amazing Sorollo exhibition at the San Diego Museum of Art in Balboa Park. Catherine Jones, a docent at the museum, provided an excellent introduction to the light-dabbed paintings of a very important artist that the world has often overlooked.
Joaquín Sorolla y Bastida was a Spanish post-Impressionist painter who won several major art awards and popular fame while he lived, but who soon became forgotten…
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Hearing Deficit
Lost in life is what I am. More than just a lost lamb who can easily be mislead. It used to be when ever I was confused on which direction to go while driving I’ve been able to find a friendly gas station attendant or a kind person to call upon. These people who help were so cute! They’d point this way then that way offering tidbits of what to look for besides street signs and because of their help I am back on the road with in minutes heading in the right direction with confidence.
Not in life there’s not much to look for that can be seen in guidance on what to do. I’ve tried praying and I do still keep at the prayers with wanting so badly to hear pointers. I gotta change my direction but where to? With my hearing deficit this may not be the…
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