This image is of Peggy (R), then a 19 year-old SNCC member, next to future civil rights icon, Dr. Dorothy Cotton (L), after a 1962 church burning in Georgia—the state that Peggy's great-great grandparents, William & Ellen Craft, famously escaped from slavery nearly 115 years earlier...
MY
WEEKLY
WORD
8.15.20
Peggy Trotter Dammond Preacely
Dr. Dorothy Cotton
The groundswell of protests, pushback and political engagement by everyday people inspired this piece...
We are of an age, left as it is up to us,
who must just do this dance.
Who must speak out, speak up
Reverberate against the lies,
Open each others’ eyes
Re-claim this agenda and invoke the change.
Re-arrange the deranged.
We are this new music and this is indeed
our chance.
​
This is our sacred time to insist
that we must each resist.
Take our stand in the light
Do this transformative dance.
We must ignore the tweets
and seek a vaccine to inoculate against the hate..
Or should we just cry FIRE?
storm the gates and occupy the streets
ignore the tweets?
And just who is this collective “we”?
Who is it over there in those shadows?
at the edge of our periphery?
In the corners of our teary, weary eyes?
where we are hearing this collective strumming ,
this persistent drumming?
Why it is coming from the
the direction of The Four Winds…of our nations’
indigenous peoples,
and from our inner-city corridors,
from the circling Wall of Mothers
it is jumping from El Bete…that north bound train to freedom.
it is walking the pipe lines…
it is crowding the street corners,
inhabiting the boardrooms… teaching in the classrooms, writing the OPEDS, posting on Instagram, yard-signing
our lawns…
​
And it is standing tall…fearing less
gathering momentum...
It is in the mouths and eyes and sinews of our children,
It is coming from our immigrants,
our elders,
our broken,
our teachers,
our students,
our essential workers,
our doctors and nurses and ER technicians, our caretakers, our poll watchers,
our thinkers, our creatives, our innovators,
and from our wild and crazy hopefuls and believers.
​
You see it is a great and gathering wisdom…It is
a restless wind
an ancient healing spirit,
a truth telling,
it is a principled re-ordering,
It is a Christ light,
a Jehovah plea,
a Mosque‘s call to prayer
an urban Menorah in this wilderness
It is an open Chalice.
And it is reverberating,
And it is calling us forth.
to a total societal and spiritual metamorphosis
And its coming closer…it is opening our eyes…
wiping out the lies,
its hearing our cries!
So can you can hear it now ?
Why of course you can,
for you see
We are this We
and it is US,
It is We the People
…and yes
WE will be heard!
© 2020 Peggy Trotter Dammond Preacely. All rights reserved.
LEFT AS IT IS...UP TO US: THIS DANCE
by Peggy Trotter Dammond Preacely