Heroes

For the Beautiful are the Feet Honorees

of the Samuel DeWitt Proctor Conference

February 2013

Allen Boesak, Amos C. Brown, Iva Carruthers, Mack King Carter, Cain Hope Felder, Bernice Powell Jackson

We sit in a room full of heroes

ordinary women and men

who by consequences 

of the times are called 

to live large before us

and they answer

the ages, stand up

and are counted, they

keep on coming, keep on

saying yes, saying yes

here, in this room

we honor them for doing

what they could not have 

refused to do, for refusing

to turn back from the

wounding world, from

being scarred

they do

not allow scared to

stop them and they

are our heroes

exemplars, witnesses

of what happens

when divine ferocity

and human will

collide, produce

the answer to human

ills, push back against

death, demonic doings 

Their lives flash before us

large, pregnant 

they show us 

what is good

their wounds open to us, 
we see their guts

and your glory

© Valerie Bridgeman

February 20, 2013