the 99 collective

Evening of the Conception
Fireworks echo all around like distant cannons
This night, María is remembered

“Do you think that this is just another day in your life? It’s not just another day. It’s the one day that is given to you, today. It’s GIVEN to you. It’s a gift. It’s the only gift that you have right now, and the only appropriate response is gratefulness.”

Every day we have the opportunity to turn agents of destruction into instruments of creation.

“Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of human freedoms—to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way.”

As humans we like to categorize others so we can simplify and understand them. The desire is natural. But these simplifications can isolate and offend.

Do you ever find yourself wanting to reveal only what is “normal” about you? I know I do. But sometimes secrecy conflicts with my activist impulses.

“We have the gift of getting in those places and being present. I think it’s a ministry of presence.”

This poem is inspired by my work with detained survivors of torture and the book of poetry, Kalakuta Republic, by Chris Abani—a political prisoner who endured years of torture in Nigeria.

How can an initiative called “Secure Communities” be the cause of so much fear and injustice?

Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain.