June Jordan - In Honor

Today is October 10, 2018 and I am reflecting a lot on legacy and about the surgery that I just underwent. It is a time when my family has wrapped their arms around me to support my healing, and I am in a shift in my mind, and moving forward to my future. I want to honor Ms. June Jordan who was a poet, an activist, a survivor of abuse, a survivor of having to understand what it means to be Black and a woman, and a seeker of the truth from our lens.

I applaud Ms. Jordan for using her platform with legacy in the forefront. She uplifts human suffering, and questions American awareness of each other's suffering. There is something to say about carrying the work of an entire race and gender of people; it does weigh down on you to "ingest" this suffering. It can manifest stress, which does create disease. Ms. Jordan was the "victim"of breast cancer on June 14, 2002. She was not a victim though, because she will forever get the last laugh because she has left her writing with us. In response to her poem after a major surgery, I will give you her "Poetry on Love", and I will recite my "Poem on Love." This merging of the living and an ancestor to create something fresh that evokes power from history and history to be. As soon as something is published, it is available to view, and it then accumulates its power. It is my duty to revive my ancestors words and work. It is not a hobby, it is an obligation. Ms. Jordan was apart of my community not only as a black woman, but as a bisexual woman, like my first love, so in honor I will find an image of queer love from about 1957 when she was 21, and an image from about 2018 when I am now 21-years-old.

"Poem for My Love" by June Jordan:

How do we come to be here next to each other

in the night

Where are the stars that show us to our love

inevitable

Outside the leaves flame usual in darkness

and the rain

falls cool and blessed on the holy flesh

the black men waiting on the corner for

a womanly mirage

I am amazed by peace

It is this possibility of you

asleep

and breathing in the quiet air

1972 Queer Couple Images by Autostraddle

"Poem for My First Love" by Morgan:

Love is like a battle between two fierce warriors

Shooting and pinpointing energies towards each other in a non-stop

search to defeat each other's demons

Every hit either causes intense destruction or immense pleasure

The dance is risky

Hearts are broken open

Shaved down to the core by the knife of words

Collapsed into almost a corpse, and then slowly revived after its time in

the ICU

I would kill her future opponent with such a great force that the seasons

would change at my wrath

I would knock him in between seasons of icy winter into suffocating

summer, so that in this confusion he would Fall Back, Back down

And left would be my Queen, and I

The one who captures all, but only she is I would exist

I would get into position, and she would grab her magic toolset.

Round Two.

Brown, Black, Queer, and Invisible by Jamal Jordan 2018

I am here to speak in honor of Ms. Jordan. It is my intention to ask out what motivates you? What makes you human? And what drives you to do the work that you do? My answer is easy: for honor, legacy, dignity, and love.

Much Love to all of my readers <3