As publishers, journalists, writers, etc., we represent the Wise Gurus of our ancestors as we have taken Up the torch to Use our gifts and resources to provide the truth of our living to out communities, this Nation, and the world. That Is the mission of our publications. This poem I share addresses why we must tell our stories.
PHOTO CREDIT: MARK MAHONEY (DREAMINCOLOR) EXCLUSIVELY FOR THE NNPA
Who Can Tell My Story
By Carol Prejean Zippert, PhD
So here you come and
you’re saying you can tell my story
So how will you start
I don’t even know the beginning exactly –
It goes back so far and so deep
So when you tell my story
how will you tell about all the pain
that you refuse to know about
and all the pain that I truly know about
And when you tell my story
where will you go to meet all my struggles
Do you know how i lift myself to greet a sunrise each morning
Do you know how I prepare my courage
and my faith to last through
that coming sunset each evening –
That’s how my story goes
So you will tell my story
Where will you find what I know to celebrate
What do you have inside you that will connect
to the history that leads me on the journey
deep in my body and spirit and find that dance
and that song and that poem
that make my story
So you think you can tell my story
And you still don’t hear your lie in that –
You can tell my story
My story is mine and you can know it
when I tell it
My story is mine and you can know it
when you break down the lies in your story
that you inflict on mine
My story is mine and when you hear it from me
You will know that it does connect to yours
And we can have our story when the past and the present are lifted in truth
When the story is ours we will know justice
And we will know peace,
And that’s how the story goes
