Performed by Val Cole

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POEM:

The death winter came and was deep
With white on the purple mountain
The Tiwahe’ 'Standing Rock People'
Begged for warm fires from Iktinie the Sun Spirit
Our mouths were hungry and bodies were weak

Iya’ the Snow Monster had taken us farther to the south
To foll...

Performed by Val Cole

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POEM:

To A Friend Opening a Crematorium Bill

“It turns out, it’s expensive to die,”
You say.
And I picture you,
half in shadow,
reading price lists like hymns,
offering fire as mercy
to your wife,
who can no longer afford
to lie still in peace.

They’ve monetized ...

Performed by Val Cole

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POEM:

Return to the Den

I’m sorry I came at you like a wolf,
spit flying from my curled back lips,
teeth bared as I spat my grievances
in your direction.

Whether real or perceived,
I see now,
these obstacles I faced,
they were mine to contend with.

After all, how ...

Poetry by Val Cole

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POEM:

Ballad of Veronica

You fixed the pipes and mended bikes,
swept dust before the dawn;
jackfruit smoked upon the fire,
the kettle always on.

You raised a daughter through the war,
through jungle dark and town laid down;
and sometimes, when the nights grew long,
we as...

Performed by Val Cole

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POEM:

Nature
By Alison Angel Javens

Nature-
You create
We copy
Elsa pareti
Hearts for
Tiffany
Tripping dripping
Glimmering
Gotcha

Go

open wide
Breath
See with
eyes
Wide open
Look
Down
under
Up and over

Diamonds
Squares
Triangles pairs
Comfy
In the womb
Mother Eart...

Performed by Val Cole

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POEM:

Rapids

By Alison Angel Javens

The rapids of life

A craggily creek
A rambling river

Rolling us along
Swiftly
Or snail paced
Or not at all

The rapids of life

Water
turns and churns
Like my insides which
Burn and yearn

Oh when will I learn to
Glide not be d...

Poem by Val Cole

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POEM:

Cold Side of the Bed

Loneliness is the cold side of the bed –
the indent where you used to lay,
the smell of your perfume
preserved,

as though you’d come back any second
with a “see you later,”
not the goodbye you never said.

All the words left on read,
and all I...

Performed by Val Cole

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In Neglect

Can I fit into your box?
Will you let me in?
I can contort myself, I’m quite the performer— I’ve always been good at this.

Watch as I bend! Move! Twist and sit!
It looks unorthodox as I bend.

move.

twist.

sit.

Yet my comfort is found residing withi...

Performed by Val Cole

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BIG YELLOW TAXI

What you do to me is expensive to my body and
brain, like going on a shopping spree and then
not being able to pay for it Turning and
turning on my pillow until I just can’t
turn anymore and morning comes
too quickly. Are these bags under
my eyes wor...

Performed by Val Cole

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POEM:

Another Rain-Soaked Love Letter
By
Thomas Koron

As I walked on through an endless downpour,
Across the dark street, the pouring rain swept.
It had been days since the last time I slept—
Wondering if you loved me anymore.

Once I made it home, I unlocked the door...

Performed by Val Cole

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Get to know the poem:

1) What is the theme of your poem?

The theme is about ICE detentions specifically those that transpired in Minneapolis.

2) What motivated you to write this poem?

I was motivated to write this poem to shed light on the gross injustice ...

Performed by Val Cole

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Anger of a Kind

Anger of a kind
rests in the contours
of our palms,
inexpressible

Anger of a kind
with clenched fist
demands hearing of
why & wherefores
to this satiated life

Anger of a kind
bleeds from open wounds
& wombs, distended
bellies, machine-gunned childr...

Adriane P. Reesey

aGREED RuiNATION

contracts signed in clean rooms
ink dries while something else erodes
buildings rise as the footing gives
doors open for some, close on others
numbers climb while something fails

Performed by Val Cole

Performed by Val Cole

Performed by Val Cole

Performed by Val Cole

POEM:

When terrorists start a war
through unprovoked attacks
on their neighboring country’s
civilians,
and that neighboring country
first blocks the missiles,
then uses drones to cut down
only the actual person who fired
the last missile, but eventually,
when enough missi...

https://youtu.be/p_7tv9Mx47U

Performed by Val Cole

POEM:

It’s been a long hot summer
Our work’s been hard each day
Routine is normal in our home
We have no other way

Our mom keeps busy with her kids
Our family’s rather large
She tirelessly tends to us all
She stays at home, fully, in charge
...

https://youtu.be/oDDFPWmUTHk

Performed by Val Cole

POEM:

No raise, no money, no overtime.
This pride ain’t built on a production line.
Your cars, your drinks, your parking fines
keep us down in the welfare line.
We scream, we cry, we love and die.
All for a crumb from the social pie.
But who ...

https://youtu.be/rAtjk7ITOHI

performed by Val Cole

POEM:

the warm, cheap wine
doesn’t taste good but
at least the sea is
mine

I chug what I should have sipped
suppress what I could have done
none of it matters, the money is gone
my father is dead

and the wine is flowing in my blood
just lik...

Performed by Val Cole

POEM:

The way I feel
lives in the muscle of your thigh
right before it moves.
Coiled in anxious yes.

Waiting to reach past
Its own name,
to take control and grab you
without hesitation.
Every nerve at attention as hands
clench and tighten around the air.
The quiet game o...

https://youtu.be/ePj2Sa1SfYo

Performed by Val Cole

POEM:

Your brain is a sea,
your irises my windows
to watch you drown.

You choke on waves
meant to break on my shore.

You choke on your own hair.

From your skull
tentacles peel,
crawl down your face
like purple ivy
over my windowsill.

You ...

Performed by Val Cole

POEM:

They look like an accidental bird,
Wings making grey angles
Their thoughts move in rings around their ears
And scrape against the sharp jaw lines,
Movement horizontally, body stretching across
only to snap back
into embodiedness.
Seeing them, I noticed how
our spine...

Performed by Val Cole

POEM:

I have stood in the shadows of giants,
Dwarfed by their statue.
Towering, resolute,
Their energy radiates the jagged shores
Commanding respect.
Demanding awe from the awestruck.
The living faces of ancestors,
Monuments to the dead,
Guardians of the living.
They have...