Alexis Pauline Gumbs, "this is what it sounds like (an ecological approach)"
(page 4 of 4)

10.
cue violins [40]
blue strings broken grass [41]
from plucking [42]
and running [43]
away [44]

11.
farmers are more patient lovers [45]
for now [46]
pretend

because...

12.
this is what it sounds like [47]
your heart awake with mourning
your hands already brown
your face untied with rain
your hope growing in jars

those passing by will hear
whole note wind in a bottle tree
the clear black ocean washing back
a digital chorus of birds
jumprope pavement friction songs

and they will remember.

Footnotes

40. An ecological approach means staying rooted. [Back to text]

41. If we are accountable to and interdependent with our community as an environment, we must also acknowledge that we have the capability to disrupt or harm our eco-system with behaviors that forget or disrespect our interconnection. [Back to text]

42. This means staying, even when it is hard, and transforming our relationships instead of pretending that we can sever them. We cannot. Meaning: [Back to text]

43. We cannot live without each other. [Back to text]

44. Our connections to each other persist even across death. [Back to text]

45. An ecological approach is long-term. The intentional practice of growing a vision for a lovingly transformational way of life in an economic system that seeks to make our lives and love unthinkable feels ambitious and risky. It is actually as simple as remembering who we are, what life is, and acting accordingly, for the rest of our lives... and with an intergenerationally accountable relationship to the future with us always. [Back to text]

46. Revealing the world we need and deserve within the world we have is an everyday practice of unlearning what we think we know and becoming present how the miraculous future is already evident here. [Back to text]

47. Good luck. [Back to text]

Page: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4