Poetry Sojourner Truth

Ain’t I a woman!

December 26, 2004
By Celine Leduc

A long, long time ago
Sojourner Truth asked
Ain’t I a woman?


She saw white men
In their gentleman ways
Standing up for a white women.
Offering them a hand,
Their hand as support
So they could get in or out
Of a carriage.

These gentlemen opened
The doors, stood up,
When a lady entered the room.
A white lady that is…

She did not understand
Because she was forced
to work as hard if not harder
Than a man.
She bailed hay, loaded
Sleighs, she was as strong as a man.

She was made to stand up for a man
A white man.
Does this mean she is a true leader?

Was it not what white men think
They were stronger than white women,
Hence, stood up for them…
Maybe this is why she asked;
Ain’t I a woman?

Well time went by,
Some white women learnt
That they could be as strong as men
Where even stronger
As they bore children!
The women said no do not stand up,
Do not offer me a hand
You are making me weak and inferior.
So women worked as hard as men
Became the woman Sojourner was
Way back then.

Well my story is not finished,
You see…
Because after white women
Saw their strength
Got their rights.
Could make decisions
And vote.
Way down in Alabama
A young woman
Worked all day,
Her feet were tired,
Her back ached.
Was told by a white man
Stand up and give me your seat.

Rosa Parks stayed seated
She remained in her seat
Going against the law.
She sat in her seat.
She said knowing well that she was a woman!

Well, she stirred quite a fuss
She got black men to talk and stand up
White women stood up for her
Together they made a difference.
And finally, Rosa got to sit!

It took over 300 years
If not more for white women to
See that black women were women
Just like them…
But then it took more than
3000 years to see they were equal to men….

Maybe this is what Sojourner meant
When she said” Ain’t I a woman”
She knew!

Kwanza

Kwanza!

Television mirrors life!
Life reflects television!
For the aficionado it is G. H.
General Hospital for those
Who are not acquainted with
The life of Soaps.

Mary May, a beautiful woman
With a voice to soothe angels,
Invited Luke and Laura
to a Kwanza celebration.
As Laura had helped her so much
With her orphan kids.

Luke surprised to be invited
To a Black affair to celebrate
With African Americans.
Luke was a bit shy!
He said quite eloquently
Like only Luke can say
“You sure you want me,
‘cause you know I'm white.”

Mary May smiled and said:
Kwanza is for everybody.
Come on the first day of a seven day event
Of pride in being black, come and share with us.

First Kwanza I ever saw
Right there on Television
Performed by my favorite
Soap Stars, Right on G. H.
Mary May invited
Luke and Laura
And also me…

Curious to know if in Montreal
Such an event existed
I called and called.
I let my fingers do the walking
And finally I reached my destination.
The Ethnic Bookstore
My marching fingers led me.
Ida told me of Bernadette.
She was one of the first woman
to perform and celebrate Kwanza.
Bernadette was in high demand…

So on the phone I get,
To invite Bernadette to share
A Kwanza on the air.
I had a radio show then.
On CKUT …
She told me she usually performed
With her friend Ophelia.
Little did I know
That Bernadette and Ophelia
Would ask me to join them right there on air.
Me perform a poem, on air.
I told her "You sure you want me I'm white!"
Bernadette smiled and said: "Kwanza is for everyone."
Right on air they convinced me to recite,
To share a bit of me, my inner self.

Well, this led to a yearly Affair
Once a year Bernadette, Ophelia and I
Went on air to speak of and celebrate Kwanza.

The second year, I felt the joy
and yes honor Luke and Laura felt.
Bernadette Ophelia read poetry
and Grail played the drums.

We performed live for all of Montreal,
It was a celebration with a studio
full of people from all walks of life.
In all shades of black and white.
On that Monday Kwanza hit the airwaves.

All it took was for Mary May to invite
Luke and Laura to celebrate and say:
You are all invited in my celebration
Of who I am, for I am a Black woman
Proud and happy willing to share my holiday...

Yes, Art mimics life if only we take the first step and say I invite!
Ever since that first show on the Radio
Bernadette, Ophelia and me
Have always celebrate Kwanza.
And now to our group we add another friend
Daniela… You and you and you!

Celine Leduc
December 26, 2004

Poetry commemorating the Holocaust

Never again!

Celine Leduc
January 27, 2005

Annie and Anita two best friends
Grew up together in Berlin.
Faithful to their religion and their love God.
No one knew who was Lutheran or Jewish.
They were blond haired blue eyed beauties.
Proud and loving German women.
Their generation reflected the openness of society.
Educated, lovers of music and dance.

As they grew their art complemented
One another a pianist/percussionist,
The other a modern dancer.
Their talent was applauded.
Germans loved them, for their talent
Their genius as they were the best
Germany had to offer.

They traveled around the world
Celebrating German dance and music
The special and honored place of woman in
German male oriented society.
All was fine, until….

1933 came, and all changed!
Germans became Aryans they were pure.
The National Socialist Party had won
An election, but were known as Nazis.

Under the pure Nazi!
One lost her rights to be a German
Her religion became a crime
She was a dirty Jew.
Even when she kept Kosher.
Accused of drinking the blood of gentile,
When her faith forbids the eating or drinking of blood.
The other soiled as she was a Jew lover.
Their love was unwelcome, forbidden and knew.
Soon they had to leave!

An underground network of women.
Made up of the unclean scoundrels.
Broke the German code of silence.
The impure allowed them to regain their nationality.
The underground provided them,
Fake name, passports, identity, traveling passes.
Purifying them by their name
Allowing them the flee to freedom.
In a world of fake identity
where German became Aryans.

You ask: “What’s in a name?”
Their blond hair and blue eyes
Was not reflected in their name.
And so their name changed
Reiner became .Reimer
And Erickson Brandt
Good German names reflecting the Aryans nightmare
Allowed them to dream of freedom
As they became card carrying fake slaves of the Nazis and Aryan

Nazis laws made their love illegal,
Their friendship lawless.
What you ask is in a name.
Life, love and freedom!

On a bright sunny day!
They set off on an a trip.
By car, by foot they reached
The border, between Germany and Holland.

It is between slavery and freedom.
The inseparable were separated.
One made it to safety
The other was killed by a lone border soldier.
Two became one.
The German soldier, screamed
A platoon doubled back.

Although she made it to safety.
She came back, to save her friend.
The soldier, mindlessly following orders demanded
What is your name?
Silence greeted him.
Not one word she said.
Not one scream from her lips.
Not one tear in her eyes.
As she held her childhood friend in her arms

Ten Nazi soldiers, ran when a gunshot called.
With all her might she fought.
They yelled traitor.
“Jude”, we know you are a Jew.
You betrayed the Reich.
You drink our blood, he yelled.
As her friend laid covered in blood
Because of a bullet in her back.
As the earth soaked up, swallowed
and drank the blood of the innocent..
Off to the Berlin you go.
Jewish murderer.

In Berlin, the hands that had clapped
Now her face they slapped.
Interrogated, punched, beaten.
Not one tear she shed.
Not one word she said.
Off to Auschwitz went.

A law, a man made law
A law of hatred separated
Two childhood friends.
Ended their life
Ended their freedom
Ended their earthly love.
Stripped them of their nationality.
Their identity but never of their dignity.
Two became one, in that horror.

She died at the border
She died in a camp, a gas chamber.
Clinging to her friend.
Her memory of better days.
On her way to the gas chamber
Her friend was there, showed her
Two flowers one white one red.

She stopped, bent and picked them up.
In her hands all that remained
Was a handful parched dried earth
Tainted by the blood of the innocent.
The lost of innocence
.

Welcome to Effusion 2005.

Effusion is all about words. The written word which will be used to create friendships through poetry, poetic prose and short stories.

The aim is to build bridges between people, a friendship can survive and even blossom if it is based on honesty and knowledge first of the self, the “I”, the ego which leads to understanding and respecting of the other.

Women can accomplish a great deal as individuals and as a group. The world of women is diversified and all encompassing because we come in all shapes. Women represent every race, religion, belief, politics. Women are of every sexual orientation. Women celebrates life, love, hope and peace.

This blog celebrates women and their power, yet they must agree with the mandate and the aim. Men are welcome if they agree with the mandate.

The mandate:

1. Promote the positive, such as I am for something instead of being against a person, a group, or an ideology.
2. Respect the other as we respect ourselves. Based on an adage found in the Bible “Love thyself as thy neighbor”
3. Diversity be it of ethnicity, religion, sexuality or race.
4. Equality everyone is equal as each one of us is understood by her character, her humanity, her love, her acceptance and respect of her friend.
5. Love ourselves first in all our greatness and beauty hence loving our friend.
6. Passion for the written word, poetry, poetic prose, short stories or articles.
7. Compassion as the pain of one is respected and understood. Action is taken to soothe the pain and to find ingenious ways to prevent it from happening again.
8. Exposing hatred in all its forms and replacing it by love that is the full knowledge of both the good and bad ourselves our society and hence the other and her society.
9. Developing a body of works that promotes these ideals.