Climbing PoeTree

BOX BREAKER

by Alixa Garcia of Climbing PoeTree

I don’t fitinto the moldthey gave to meI threw too many stonesinto the glass houseI use to beshattered their assumptionsand paper cut identity

yeah, it was me

I’m too many complexities
for their geometry
I’m concentric circles
you can’t box me in

too many past lives
to get to know me
you’ll have to study
archeology

I’m from the outer-spaces
best master
your astronomy
decode the code
of ethics
till your soul
guides your philosophy

then step to me

take two steps back
and three steps forward
I’m somewhere in the middle
where humanity’s not murdered
for technology

I started composing my apology
remembering
the memory forgotten
in the deadly game
of progress

they profess futures
untouched
but instead regress
to women walking streets
full of fear with purses clutched
and men
with guns and hidden tears
scared of a soft touch
and humans hungry
for dollars
but you can’t eat
money for lunch

Dreams with broken legs
need to grab hold
of a crutch
cast
a new shape
from the healing that will come
until bone is strong as feather
and can carry you
through flight

outside the walls
from up above
freedom
is too beautiful
makes their box
not look like much

yeah, it was me
I threw the stone
against their disbelief
to break my prison hold

I was too much bad kid
for their straight line
too much rebel
for their design
too much dreamer
for their demise
too much outside the dotted line
I drew my own conclusions

pulled myself inside
out
and saw that I was God

God told me:

Yeah, it was me
I sent my only begotten son
along with all my daughters
countless poets
and those who could outrun
unravel their mythology
till their formation came undone
the only path back to me
is a step into a journey
walked

knowing you
is knowing me
when you opened the door
as I first knocked
I was a mirror
waiting for you
I guess I’m Buddhist in my heart

wow, God—
you’re deep

deeper than their churches
I guess you’re just like me
we never fit
inside their house
we rather walk
the streets
and pump our fists
in silence
with the Zapatista mass

thanks for holding my sling shot steady
while I broke this ceiling made of glass

A Tapestry of Spoken-Word Poetry and Movement

Check out what these notables have said about the book:

“Each time I have the pleasure of attending a performance by Climbing PoeTree, I feel enriched, renewed, and inspired. Alixa and Naima insist that poetry can change the world–and it is true that the urgency, power and beauty of their words impel us to keep striving for the radical futures toward which they gesture.”

~ Angela Y. Davis, political activist, scholar, Distinguished Professor Emerita, UCSC

“These poems… inspire us to be stronger, be braver, to do more for each other, to give more, require more, to hold more, to let go, to be more accountable, to hold each other more accountable. These words insist we be our sisters’ keepers, our own big brothers- these truths argue that regardless of our differences, all of us who share this planet are family.”

~Staceyann Chin, HBO Def Jam poet, author of The Other Side of Paradise

AWAKEN

by NaimaPenniman of Climbing PoeTree

we are in the wake

of a great shifting

awaken

you better free your mind
before they illegalize thought

there’s a war going on

the first casualty was truth
and it’s inside you

the universe is counting on our belief
that faith is more powerful than fear
and in that the shifting moment
we’ll all remember why we’re here

in a world where you’re assassinated for having a dream
and the rich spend 9 billion a year to control our ideas
and visions are televised so things aren’t what they seem

we gotta believe
in a world where
there’s room enough for everyone
to breathe

cause reality is made up of
7 billion thoughts
who made up their minds
of what’s real and what’s not

so I stopped believing
in false idols of war
greed and hate
is not worth my faith

my mind’s dedicated
to justice
my soul is devoted
to love

and love is God
and God is truth
and truth is you
and you are me
and I am everything
and everything is nothing
and nothing is the birthplace of creation
and transformation is possible
and you are proof

we were born right now
for a reason
we can be whatever
we give ourselves the power to be

and right now we need
day dreamers
gate keepers
bridge builders
soul speakers
web weavers
light bearers
food growers
wound healers
trail blazers
truth sayers
life lovers
peace makers

give what you most deeply desire
to give
every moment you are choosing to live
or you are waiting

why would a flower hesitate to open?
now is the only moment
rain drop let go
become the ocean

possibility is as wide
as the space
we create
to hold it