A PAN ABOLITIONIST PRAYER FOR LEONARD PELTIER

U.S. political prisoner Leonard Peltier.

“The only accounts we owe are to our children, the ancestors and those not yet born”
-Amilcar Cabral whom I was honored to meet in Accra

just as we carry
our African roots
deep in the soil
of our ancestral memory
we live
and breathe
Pan Africanism
part of our praxis
and history

we pour libation to Kwame Nkrumah
and George Padmore
and T.D. Mckonnen
and the freedom fighters
of the liberation movements
that trained
in Accra
to wrest independence
from the imperial vampire

we pour libation
to those who taught us
that the independence
of one African State
is nothing
unless it is connected
to the independence
of them all

and today
we vow we will not rest
till Leonard Peltier’s life
is wrested from the carceral empire –
we vow he will walk free
because his liberation
is connected
to the freedom
of them all

to the freedom of all political prisoners –
our own independence warriors
resisting
death by incarceration

to the freedom
of us all

tonight
we will light candles
till night’s end
and
at dawn
Pan Abolitionism –
the dream
in the gleam
of the eyes of our children
the ancestors
and those not yet born –
will begin to manifest
after our slavery-old quest

WHAT DOES PEACE SOUND LIKE?

To Leonard Peltier, an invocation for your Release after your parole hearing tomorrow

we know the sounds of Summer
coming –
there is the buzz of a bottle fly
there is a soaring eagle’s cry
there is the whir of grass being mown
there is the swish of a kite high flown
and
children are laughing as they gather shells
splashing in the freedom of the ocean’s foam –

but
what does
the absence
of hatred
sound like ?

what does Peace
sound like ?

what does Justice
sound like –
does it even ring a bell ?

and
what would your release
sound like……

after forty eight Summers
hearing none of Mother Earth’s
renewal songs
and now blind
in your cage ?

INTER-TIME

“I inter-be”
Thich Nhat Hanh

“Our prisoners endure cookie cutter torture”
Ericka Payne

To the Palestine Youth Movement and their lessons shared

there is a fifth season
in our struggle for abolition
a season called
Inter-time

we bask in the sun
of the inter- generational gap filled
as the elders
soon to become ancestors
make way for
their children
and the children
listen deeply
to the carriers of History
and the accretion
of their wisdom

the inter-generational soil
seeded
acknowledges our individual mortality
and ensures
the liberation movement’s longevity

we harvest the blooms
from
the cross pollination
of inter – national solidarity
across borders
against balkanisation
defeating war
and genocide
and Apartheid
everywhere

our inter-national front
by acknowledging the globality
of imperialism
ensures our ubiquity

we practice inter- movement outreach
with other liberation fronts
as we unite within the belly
of the beast
not in the transactional mode
capitalism taught us
but
because we know
we suffer cookie cutter torture
and one battle won
is meaningless
unless it is connected
to a collective victory
against the tight mesh
of the system
where we are all imprisoned

and those inside
are creating a strong prisoners’ movement
inter-facing
and
inter-acting
with the families outside

finally
we all honor inter-nal time –
the time
of inter-faith prayer
of song
of drums
of dreams
of liberation poetry
and
the ancestral rites
putting us in touch
with Mother Earth’s
fruit and flowers
of spirituality

Fighting Words

Journal of the Communist Workers league

A PAN ABOLITIONIST PRAYER FOR LEONARD PELTIER | WHAT DOES PEACE SOUND LIKE? | INTER-TIME

Poems by renowned Black leader and activist Julia Wright