IMAGINE

Marsha Foster Boyd, president of Ecumenical Theological Seminary, invited me to be the poet during a Women's Leadership Conference. She really wanted me to do the poetry set for this moment, when I am given words from the audience and create a poem on the spot, improvising slam-style. I usually never hear the poem again because it can never be reproduced the same and it often is not recorded. I recorded this one and will work on this piece. The audience actually gave me some good words to work with. So the words "thrown into the mix" by the audience were (in order):

Palm, Yesterday, Imagine, Ingenious, Echo, Persistent, Reach, Explore, Daylight, Quilt, Fruitful, Sisters, Possessions, Stand, Rhythm

Imagine

At the break of daylight

I remember yesterday’s conversation.

We sat underneath a palm tree

Only imagining what could have been

If we had talked years before

How fruitful our lives might have been

Had we chosen not to choose

Possessions over Tuesday afternoon tea
or pointing at outfits in the mall
that would fit one or the other
of us better

Now, we are persistent

to make truth come to light.

We have decided that the echoes

of our past have haunted us

too long and we reach

for one another, sisters

We explore how our lives ,

quilted as they are from

Our grandmothers’ stories:

We are born anew this morning

We rise in the rhythm

Of our own lives, bring them

Into harmony with one another

We stand persistent,

an ingenious love, woven pure

© Valerie Bridgeman

First draft improv/March 23, 2012

Edited version/April 7, 2012

FIRST DRAFT

FIRST DRAFT/PERFORMED IN THE MOMENT

At the break of daylight

I remember yesterday’s conversation.

We were sitting underneath a palm tree

Only imagining what it would have been

Had we had this conversation years before

How fruitful our lives might have been

Had we chosen not to choose

Possessions over one another

Here, we are persistent

To make truth come to light

We have decided that the echoes

Of our past have haunted us

Way too long and we reach

for one another, sisters

This exploration of our lives (is)

Quilted into us from

Our grandmothers’ stories:

We are born anew this morning

Standing under the rhythm

Of our own lives, bringing them

Into connection with one another

We stand persistent, ingenious

Love, woven pure

FIRST DRAFT

© Valerie Bridgeman

Women in Leadership Conference

March 23, 2012

Detroit, MI

Words provided by participants