Tag: spoken word

Finding Hope in A Broken World

On By Dawn MinottIn Prose4 Comments


Before-word: This piece was written in response to the following questions I’ve been asking myself in the wake of protests to social injustice across the globe: How many times can a people be stretched before their elasticity is extended beyond its capacity to bounce back and they snap instead? What do you do when as a people you feel you’re losing your ability to bounce back? How much longer can a people hope when they see no signs of change but distress, oppression, mistreatment, hurt and abuse instead? What do you do when as a people you feel forgotten, forsaken and left hoping for hope?

If likened to a clay pot that falls, breaking is inevitable. And like broken clay, discarding is also inevitable. Or if efforts are made to put it back together, the cracks will be evident and the original beauty seems lost. Scarred. Scarred for life. No longer fit for display.

The Japanese art of repairing broken pottery—KINTSUGI (also known as kintsukuroi)—literally translated to mean “golden repair”, is practiced from the philosophy of treating breakage and repair as part of the history of an object, rather than something to disguise.

This unique art form, when reimagined in the context of human broken experiences, can inspire a sense of hope.

Right now we are in the breaking.

We are a people yearning for change, looking for hope, wanting restoration. The price for change is the brokenness long endured in our bodies, in our psyche and now magnified for the world to see.

How can the “art of precious scars” give a sense of hope at this time?

In the case of pottery, though broken and fragmented, through a change process of applying a precious liquified metal each broken piece is reconnected and the piece is brought back together again. And because no two objects break in the same way, each restored piece is a unique work of art not to be hidden away but displayed.

In the case of a people—each restored and made whole to highlight and enhance the breaks; each a one-of-a-kind work of art more valuable than before the breaking—can lead to collective restoration. A collective change.

What if we use these experiences of injustice, these tears, the magnitude of these hurts, the enormity of these losses to inspire CHANGE? Like liquified precious metal it can bind our individual and collective breaking into a restored community.

This is the essence of resilience—what I call bounceBACKability! This can be a recipe for hope.

Photo from https://vikramkamboj.com/2015/12/kintsukuroi-the-japanese-art-of-embracing-broken-and-flawed-things/

Thank you for reading! Follow the blog👈 for more.

In creative solidarity, Dee

Words’ Power!

On By Dawn MinottIn ProseLeave a comment

Before-word: This short essay is thanks to my reaction to a nature show on NatGeo. There I was immersed in the wonders of life in the deepest part of the ocean and I thought: “wow…all of this was spoken into existence”! [clearly, I’m a creationist]. Then I got to thinking about the power of the words I speak to myself and the power of words generally and this essay is the outcome of all the musings.

The universe and ALL that we know came into being because God SAID it! But He did more than just spoke (communicating His thoughts, feelings, plans), He declared — made a public announcement, an explicit assertion.

In the act of DECLARING He spoke: let there be … and there was! Let there be roses and light and trees and fish and water and giraffe and oxygen and salt and atom and stars and gold and nebula and starfish and diamond and matter and … you get the picture? Check this out — God declared: LET THERE BE LIGHT! And voila — because He IS light, light came spewing from His mouth, gushing at 299,792,458 meters per second. WOW!!

Everything God declared now is!

Of course He went a step further when it came to mankind because although He had already spoken into existence cells and blood and all the other ingredients required to speak human-life into being, He chose instead to hand-form and breathe-into and man was created not just for his own existence but so that in him life could be replicated over and over again. 

But, after God created man He spoke, He made a declaration that it was not just good but “it was very good” (Genesis 1:31). God said the universe in all its majesty was good but after He made man, He said it was VERY good.

I think ...
the power that is in speaking
and in making declarations 
has eluded us

It is God who said “the tongue has the power of life and death” (Proverbs 18:21).

Seems it is easier for us to use the tongue to speak “death” as we make declarations like:

  • I can’t do that – killing off our dreams before they’ve had the chance to live outside our thoughts;
  • I’m not good enough — killing off our potential before God’s purpose can be manifested in us;
  • I’m not pretty enough — killing off our beauty before the world can see who we really are;
  • I’m not smart enough …, rich enough …
  • I don’t have the right job …, right car …, right house
  • It’s not the right time.

Yes, we use the power of the tongue and make declarations — but declarations unto death! And it is therefore no wonder that we have exactly what we declare. There is, indeed, power in words and in the act of declaring.

After years of death-speaking into my own life I’ve learned the power of life-talk and now I make declarations like:

  • I can, I’m pretty enough, smart enough, rich enough!
  • I have the right job, the right car, the right house!
  • No one can fulfill the purpose I was created for!
  • No one can do it, write it, recite it the way I can!
  • No one can do the job, pick up folks in a car, welcome them to a home like I can!
  • And this is the time, for I’m here for such a time as now!

Why do we live in depravity, scarcity, doubt? Because we ask not. Because we keep silent. Because we do not make life-like declarations. If the all-powerful God who could think things into existence chose instead to speak, what about us?

Why do you keep silent? Speak out! Declare! Effect change!

Thank you for reading! Follow the blog👈 for more.

In creative solidarity, Dee

Unmasked ©Dawn Minott

On By Dawn MinottIn Poetry3 Comments

He didn’t change
She fell in love
With the him he wanted her to see
To steal
What she wouldn’t give an imposter
Unmasked—
Her love knows not this man she sees

After-word: I wrote this piece long before masking became part of global health guidelines. Today we mask-up to protect our immune systems from an unseen predator—the novel corona virus. So for that reason, follow the golden rule of masking: mask-up for others as you’d have them mask-up for you.

However, when I wrote this piece it was based on reflecting on deception masked as truth and when unmasked the toll it takes on the heart-system.

Thank you for reading! Follow the blog👈 for more.

In creative solidarity, Dee

D.O.A. | Defiant On Arrival© (a poem)

On By Dawn MinottIn Poetry1 Comment

Before-word: This piece was written based on the culmination of experiences of those of us who’ve encountered a lying, deceitful, manipulator who masqueraded as love. Who among us haven’t had such an encounter? This is a live recording of a recital of D.O.A. at the Bowery Poetry Café (NY City).

[click the “play” icon to watch live recital of D.O.A]

Spoken Word … Live @ Bowery Poetry Café

Thank you for reading! Follow the blog👈 for more.

In creative solidarity, Dee