“What are the words you do not yet have? What do you need to say? What are the tyrannies you swallow day by day and attempt to make your own, until you will sicken and die of them, still in silence? Perhaps for some of you here today, I am the face of one of your fears. Because I am a woman, because I am Black, because I am lesbian, because I am myself — a Black woman warrior poet doing my work — come to ask you, are you doing yours?
And of course I am afraid, because the transformation of silence into language and action is an act of self-revelation, and that always seems fraught with danger. But my daughter, when I told her of our topic and my difficulty with it, said, ‘Tell them about how you’re never really a whole person if you remain silent, because there’s always that one little piece inside you that wants to be spoken out, and if you keep ignoring it, it gets madder and madder and hotter and hotter, and if you don’t speak it out one day it will just up and punch you in the mouth from the inside.’”
-Audre Lorde
May We Dance on Their Graves
Incest Survivors, Spirituality and Ceremonies of Justice – the story of a woman living a rich, fulfilling life while waiting to dance
Hi,
I love Audre Lorde. Her words always touch me. I think that is because they come from deep within her, from her core. Thank you for sharing this.
Good and healing thoughts to you.
Kate
What a thoughtful, sad blog entry. I hope you can get out your little pieces out so you can heal.
Lindsey Petersen
http://5kidswdisabilities.wordpress.com
Hi Lindsay,
The entry is a quote from Audre Lorde that another survivor posted as a comment on a friends blog, it’s not actually any of my words.
Sophia