Circle of Everything

by Glenis Redmond

In this moment there is everything to say.
In this moment there is nothing to say.
So let the poet speak,
for the poet is carved
for moments like this equipped for
sorrow and celebration,
for the poet gives the heart its mouth
blood to warm the hour.
This hour wants a poem, held in a song
fueled by the heat of wings,
something akin to flight, wrapped in grit
fashioned by the mouth of Goree.
Not to speak to the heart, but give the heart life. Forget the high octave perfect pitch give us Mahalia, Nina, Odetta, Miriam Makeba or Fannie Lou’s sweat to complete the arc of this moment, not just a beautiful thing but a soulful moan that has everything in it, a circle drawn with light and shadow delivering:
 

curse and prayer
cure and poison
heat and chill
root and branch
core and meat
drink and thirst
Geometry’s incantation that holds
faint and swell.
Let the circle be drawn.
Let the circle be a raw voice
that pierces the rooftop of heaven
shakes the rafters and Gabriel’s hand
but also graces the ground beneath the feet of the migrant worker igniting hope
in each and every weary step.
 
Let the circle be a voice that suspends strong wide, a woven bridge linked to the past tied to the place King talked about:
the fierce urgency of now.
Let us see that all the soil has not been tilled but with rake and shovel, hoe and axe we can get beyond the surface
locate our circumference of we.
In this uncanny loop of hands and hearts let us find the power from the
realm of angels and ancestors to blend our Oh Say Can You See to our
Lift Every Voice and Sing histories.
Let us embrace our complicated
gorgeous mess of a country,
built upon Native American and
slave massacres.
Let us excavate and examine our
contradictions: hold to the light the slave hands on white house slabs
see it not as a cornerstone but a circle
with everything in it.
Let us locate the moments
hope died in texas and tennessee
Let this day be an exorcism
to rid the bad spirits.
Let us be filled with a holy heat
Let Odetta, Nina, Miriam, Mahalia
and Fannie Lou sing to that
roundness in our chest,
gives us the courage to go with soul, find the music that makes us the poemsong of our lives,
 
jarring and soothing
pumping with potential
not to wreck our world
with division but open
ourselves in a terrific circle
wide with holding
tender and fierce hearts
 
holding like this land
holding like the world
everything in it.

Glenis Redmond is a poet, educator, performer, and counselor rolled into one passionate soul. She has won numerous awards including The Carrie McCray Literary Award in Poetry, a study fellowship from Vermont Writing Center, study scholarships to the Atlantic Center for the Arts, and a week of study with Natalie Goldberg. Glenis is the 1997 and the 1998 Southeast Regional Individual Poetry Slam Champion. She has performed throughout the United States and internationally, with tours in England and Italy.