Greg's Commonplace Book

Poetry of Resistance

[gregberrigan]

Profiles

Alright shut up!

Everybody smile.

Aren’t our lives so perfect?

Look how great I can pretend.

I am in control. You see what

I want you to see. I am my

own creator. You can’t see

my brokenness. 

I am only fooling

myself.

[madeleine-drost-blog]

I want a more godlike god

Francisco X. Alarcon (via madeleine-drost)

I really love this point that Alarcon raises about God. The examples that precede this all represent humility, so Alarcon is now equating godliness with humility.

[gregberrigan]

here’s the part, capt’n, where I try to tell a story as if it were a confession

fire by Nick Flynn

[shawnneal49-blog]

we were losing our bodies— digitized salt of bytes and speed we were becoming a powder—

Dana Levin (via shawnneal49)

Levin raises a point I feel like the masses are already aware of, yet no one is ready to take action against. People know the pitfalls of technological dependency, but it feels as though we are in too deep. We have traded our real identities for fictionalized profiles of our “perfect” lives.  Technology has tremendous power to do so much good in our world, but we have turned our focus to how it can make our lives better.

[gregberrigan]

unlike you and I            jesus knew he’d die

jesus knew by Nick Flynn

[gregberrigan]

a god who spits  blood from tuberculosis and doesn’t even have enough for bus fare

Prayer by Francisco Alarcon

[gregberrigan]

not brushed off  by the person that did not see him, has never seen him, has perhaps never seen anyone who is not a reflection of himself.

Citizen by Claudia Rankine

[gregberrigan]

I demand a war to bring the dead boy back no matter what his name is this time.

not an elegy for Mike Brown by Danez Smith

[gregberrigan]

7. monster until proven ghost

alternate names for black boys by Danez Smith

[gregberrigan]

flimsy white fork to snap in half. dispose of me.

To The Man... by Franny Choi

[gregberrigan]

Do you know anything about your people?

Some Instructions by Ross Gay

[gregberrigan]

They have no idea what I am.

What I Am by Terrance Hayes

[gregberrigan]

I do not feel sorry for you.

Within Two Weeks by Ross Gay

[gregberrigan]

It’s no wonder Pastor John’s son is the angel—everyone knows angels are white.

Abecedarian Requiring Further Examination... by Natalie Diaz

[gregberrigan]

a mausoleum mosaic, a sick tapestry: the tiny remains roused from death’s dusty cradle, cut in half, cracked, wrapped in time-tattered scraps of blankets.

The Faces of Art by Natalie Diaz

[gregberrigan]

I returned to a country battlefield where colored troops fought and died—

South by Natasha Tretheway

[gregberrigan]

Time is only a moment; “ Love is forever, yet putrescent" the lonely caterpillar ponders, "O look where the bees go!"

Depravity by Terrence Hayes