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CREATING SPACE: Heartbreak & Healing

Krystal Kavita Jagoo

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CREATING SPACE����Heartbreak & Healing

LAND ACKNOWLEDGMENT

HOW TO SHARE SPACE EQUITABLY

REVIEW OF SOME POETIC FORMS

REFLECTIVE WRITING PROMPT

VOLUNTARY SHARING OF PROCESS AND/OR NARRATIVES

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Land Acknowledgment

I wish to acknowledge this land on which I reside. It is the traditional territory of many Nations including the Mississaugas of the Credit, the Anishnabeg, the Chippewa, the Haudenosaunee, and the Wendat peoples. I acknowledge that Tkaronto is covered by Treaty 13 signed with the Mississaugas of the Credit, and the Williams Treaties signed with multiple Mississaugas and Chippewa bands. This land remains home to many Indigenous communities from across Turtle Island and I am grateful to have the opportunity to live here, as I work in solidarity with Indigenous folx. Additionally, I acknowledge the many people of African descent who are not settlers, but whose ancestors were forcibly displaced as part of the transatlantic slave trade against their will, and made to work on these lands.

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Anti-

Oppressive Practice Wishlist

  • Impact over Intent
  • Accountability for Harm
  • Positionality at Forefront
  • Accessibility for Engagement
  • Integrity with Community

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Prioritizing Access in This Space

Please use the space you are in as you need or prefer.

Sit in chairs or sit on the floor, pace, lay down, rock, flap, spin, move around, move in, out, and around your space. Communicate through your body, chat, Zoom features, or voice. Feel free to engage by listening, reflecting, etc.

Close your eyes. Draw, doodle, write.

installation piece: Shannon Finnegan, Do you want us here or not, 2018; People’s Hub (movement school) slide.

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Tujhe Dekha To

- Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge

Lata Mangeshkar & Kumar Sanu

Tujhe Dekha To Yeh Jana Sanam

Pyar Hota Hai Deewana Sanam

Tujhe Dekha To Yeh Jana Sanam

I saw you, I realized.

What madness love is.

When I saw you, I realized

Tujhe Dekha To Yeh Jana Sanam

Pyar Hota Hai Deewana Sanam

Tujhe Dekha To Yeh Jana Sanam

Pyar Hota Hai Deewana Sanam

I saw you, I realized.

What madness love is.

When I saw you, I realized.

What madness love is.

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Tujhe Dekha To

- Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge

Lata Mangeshkar & Kumar Sanu

Ab Yahan Se Kahan Jayein Hum

Teri Bahon Mein Mar Jayein Hum

From here, where to?

Just let me die in your arms.

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Tujhe Dekha To

- Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge

Lata Mangeshkar & Kumar Sanu

Ankhein Meri Sapne Tere,

Dil Mera Yadein Teri

Ho Mera Hai Kya, Sab Kuch Tera, Jan Teri Sansein Teri

Meri Ankhon Mein Ansoo Tere Aa Gaye Muskurane Lage Sare Gham

My eyes. Dream of you.

My heart holds memories of you.

Nothing’s mine. It’s all yours.

My life, my breath is yours.

When I weep for you, your tears.

My sorrows begin to smile.

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Tujhe Dekha To

- Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge

Lata Mangeshkar & Kumar Sanu

Tujhe Dekha To Yeh Jana Sanam

Pyar Hota Hai Deewana Sanam

Ab Yahan Se Kahan Jayein Hum

Teri Bahon Mein Mar Jayein Hum

Tujhe Dekha To Yeh Jana Sanam

I saw you, I realized.

What madness love is.

From here, where to?

Just let me die in your arms.

I saw you, I realized.

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Tujhe Dekha To

- Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge

Lata Mangeshkar & Kumar Sanu

Yeh Dil Kahin Lagta Nahin

Kya Kahoon Main Kya Karoon

Han Tu Samne Baithi Rahe

Main Tujhe Dekha Karoon

I don’t feel like anything.

What do I say, what do I do?

In front of me.

Just keep sitting.

Just let me look at you.

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Tujhe Dekha To

- Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge

Lata Mangeshkar & Kumar Sanu

Tune Awaz Di Dekh Main A Gayi

Pyar Se Hai Badi Kya Kasam

You called out to me, and look, here I am.

What greater than the promise to love?

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Tujhe Dekha To

- Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge

Lata Mangeshkar & Kumar Sanu

Tujhe Dekha To Yeh Jana Sanam

Pyar Hota Hai Deewana Sanam

Ab Yahan Se Kahan Jayein Hum

Teri Bahon Mein Mar Jayein Hum

I saw you, I realized.

What madness love is.

From here, where to?

Just let me die in your arms.

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A Kind of Love, Some Say by Maya Angelou

Is it true the ribs can tell

The kick of a beast from a

Lover’s fist? The bruised

Bones recorded well

The sudden shock, the

Hard impact. Then swollen lids,

Sorry eyes, spoke not

Of lost romance, but hurt.

Hate often is confused. Its

Limits are in zones beyond itself. And

Sadists will not learn that

Love by nature, exacts a pain

Unequalled on the rack.

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A Kind of Love, Some Say by Maya Angelou

“Unequalled on the rack.”

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Alone by Maya Angelou

Lying, thinking

Last night

How to find my soul a home

Where water is not thirsty

And bread loaf is not stone

I came up with one thing

And I don’t believe I’m wrong

That nobody,

But nobody

Can make it out here alone.

Alone, all alone

Nobody, but nobody

Can make it out here alone.

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Alone by Maya Angelou

There are some millionaires

With money they can’t use

Their wives run round like banshees

Their children sing the blues

They’ve got expensive doctors

To cure their hearts of stone.

But nobody

No, nobody

Can make it out here alone.

Alone, all alone

Nobody, but nobody

Can make it out here alone.

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Alone by Maya Angelou

Now if you listen closely

I’ll tell you what I know

Storm clouds are gathering

The wind is gonna blow

The race of man is suffering

And I can hear the moan,

’Cause nobody,

But nobody

Can make it out here alone.

Alone, all alone

Nobody, but nobody

Can make it out here alone.

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Caged Bird by Maya Angelou

A free bird leaps

on the back of the wind

and floats downstream

till the current ends

and dips his wing

in the orange sun rays

and dares to claim the sky.

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Caged Bird by Maya Angelou

But a bird that stalks

down his narrow cage

can seldom see through

his bars of rage

his wings are clipped and

his feet are tied

so he opens his throat to sing.

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Caged Bird by Maya Angelou

The caged bird sings

with a fearful trill

of things unknown

but longed for still

and his tune is heard

on the distant hill

for the caged bird

sings of freedom.

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Caged Bird by Maya Angelou

The free bird thinks of another breeze

and the trade winds soft through the sighing trees

and the fat worms waiting on a dawn bright lawn

and he names the sky his own.

But a caged bird stands on the grave of dreams

his shadow shouts on a nightmare scream

his wings are clipped and his feet are tied

so he opens his throat to sing.

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Caged Bird by Maya Angelou

The caged bird sings

with a fearful trill

of things unknown

but longed for still

and his tune is heard

on the distant hill

for the caged bird

sings of freedom.

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Continue: A Poem by Maya Angelou

My wish for you

Is that you continue

Continue

To be who and how you are

To astonish a mean world

With your acts of kindness

Continue

To allow humor to lighten the burden

Of your tender heart

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Continue: A Poem by Maya Angelou

Continue

In a society dark with cruelty

To let the people hear the grandeur

Of God in the peals of your laughter

Continue

To let your eloquence

Elevate the people to heights

They had only imagined

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Continue: A Poem by Maya Angelou

Continue

To remind the people that

Each is as good as the other

And that no one is beneath

Nor above you

Continue

To remember your own young years

And look with favor upon the lost

And the least and the lonely

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Continue: A Poem by Maya Angelou

Continue

To put the mantle of your protection

Around the bodies of

The young and defenseless

Continue

To take the hand of the despised

And diseased and walk proudly with them

In the high street

Some might see you and

Be encouraged to do likewise

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Continue: A Poem by Maya Angelou

Continue

To plant a public kiss of concern

On the cheek of the sick

And the aged and infirm

And count that as a

Natural action to be expected

Continue

To let gratitude be the pillow

Upon which you kneel to

Say your nightly prayer

And let faith be the bridge

You build to overcome evil

And welcome good

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Continue: A Poem by Maya Angelou

Continue

To ignore no vision

Which comes to enlarge your range

And increase your spirit

Continue

To dare to love deeply

And risk everything

For the good thing

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Continue: A Poem by Maya Angelou

Continue

To float

Happily in the sea of infinite substance

Which set aside riches for you

Before you had a name

Continue

And by doing so

You and your work

Will be able to continue

Eternally

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Invitation

to Reflect

on Your Own Relationship to Heartbreak & Healing

Some accessible options for engaging:

  • Consider the songs that may have informed your understanding of love, and write a poem unpacking that

  • Draw on Maya Angelou’s brilliance to craft a piece around healing from heartbreak in a poetic form of your choice

  • Write a poem in which you imagine heartbreak as fertile soil to nurture your healing process as you envision the love that you have long deserved

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Gwendolyn Brooks’ Advice to Writers

“In writing your poem, tell the truth as you know it. Tell your truth. Don’t try to sugar it up. Don’t force your poem to be nice or proper or normal or happy if it does not want to be. Remember that poetry is life distilled and that life is not always nice or proper or normal or happy or smooth or even-edged.”

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Time to Write!

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Voluntary Sharing of Narratives and/or Discussion of the Process of Responding to a Writing Prompt?