Has it really been so long since my last post...well I guess it's bittersweet. I've been busy in 2012 enjoying my new home and still navigating the difficult awesomeness that is my career. Here I am again in San Miguel Escobar, Guatemala, on my first trip of the year with just a few days remaining. The common sentiment in this trip has been YOGO-You Only Guatemala Once...which I guess for me is not exactly true since this is my fourth trip. But in other ways it is absolutely true because this trip has been completely different from the others.
I guess part of that can be attributed to the fact that I met these kids in October and have been with them every culture night and through the retreat as well. Many of them have worked with me in the office as well, so I know them a little differently than the other groups. Also I think it's maybe just this time in my life where I am really kind of stepping back and thinking about what is important and what I really want to accomplish.
Becoming a part of GV has been one of the most challenging, but also rewarding experiences of my life. I have learned a lot about myself and better still gotten the opportunity to really get to know my program participants in a way that has changed us both. And I have a lot to say about it, but for now I am just going to share a few poems I've written on this trip. One of the kids of my trip is a Slam poet and just an awesome human being and he has inspired me to reconnect with art.
The Perfect GV Circle
Stand with me
arms crossed,
hand in hand,
shoe tips toe to toe
arched in a linear curve
To my right, I can see you
every face, every eye
to my left, you are present
every spirit, every sigh
drop and sit
and you are a jumble
of knees and slumped shoulders
hat brims pulled down low,
voices soft with the fear that
someone might actually hear you
see more than
your face, your eyes,
your shoe tips toe to toe
what would happen
if you opened your mouth too wide and
out flew a bit of your soul
that's what you don't want to know
will you be judged
will you be told
that who you are is not
enough
So you hide behind
the silence of
"I don't know what to say"
But there comes a point
where you must learn
to trust that you'll be okay
Because nothing's ever promised
all we have is just today
yesterday is over
and tomorrow's always
a day away
so just open up your mouth
and say what you've got to say
or better yet open up your heart,
but first stand up and put yourself all in
complete the circle
round it out and don't give in
to the fear
that you won't be perfect
that it won't be right
cause when it's all of us together
and you know the group is tight
you'll realize that
perfection lives inside
the flaws you've been trying to hide.
Some of us
(Written after the discussion on the 36 year civil war)
What money doesn't change is that
we are all biodegradable
collections of flesh and bones
teeth, eyes, hair, and chromosones
but some of us are human beings
and some of us are target practice
some of us bleed and have feelings
and some of us are seen as less
How casually we speak of casualties
of accidents and incidents
number the victims instead of naming
those who were never of any consequence
because some of us are human beings
and some of us are target practice
disposable lives that have no meaning
other than inconvenience
those whose need for
power, money, oil, fruit, land, whatever
exceeds their capacity to see
that some of us are human beings
and some of us are murders
liar, monsters, and theives
consumed with a bottomless obsession with greed
with the need to always take more
no matter what the price
the need to shelter in a toxic paradise
whose glittery borders are paved
with the remains of anyone who
might oppose, who might suggest
that some of us are human beings.
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