CAMBRIDGE VOICES

POEMS AND STORIES FROM OUR COMMUNITY

Compilied in this chapbook are hundreds of Cambridge voices, hundreds of poems. In these poems people of all ages and from all across the city have shared with us their ideas, feelings, fears, hopes, and questions.

You can find copies of this book in organizations across the city including at: all the schools, public libraries, in many of the senior centers, community organizations, youth centers, religious communities, colleges, and at City Hall. You can also read some of the voices and poems below.

It is our hope that this project continues and that more and more people add their voices to this very difficult and very necesary conversation.

The Constitution

abolishes slavery

but still bears our scars.

- U.S. Const. Art. 4, Sect. 2, Cl. 2.

~Julie

Law Student, Porter Square

one and one is two

over and over again

anyone can add

~CLB

Mother, North Cambridge

Hope for our children

The future outweighs the past

Love conquers all fear

~Lydia

Clergy, Area 10

How can we make change?

The arc of history bends

When we hit the streets

~Rebecca

Teacher, Mom, Sometimes activist

Central Sqaure

One man lost his life

Then another. How many more will?

Hear the protesters

~Maddie

Student, Riverside Cambridge

Cities, chaotic

Blue, black, protests, opinions What, then, is justice?

~ AP

Community Member

Grains of sand grind fine

In time the rough is made smooth

White and black turn grey

~ CLB

Cambridge Mom, North Cambridge

Six shots were fired

Six months have passed with anguish

Six shots were heard

~ Jack

7th grade, West Cambridge

As a white person

Wondering how to engage

Talk to me soon. Please.

~ Carol

Retired Teacher, Inman Square

Dear daughter of mine

I look into this lost world

And fear your future

~ JS

Thinker, Mid-Cambridge

We have our rights and

We stay strong every step

Of the rest of the way

~ Jeffrey

Student, Inman Square

When all will be said

Of hatred and unfairness

We will be just fine

~ Jean Dany

Dad, Cambridge

Humanity Calls

For respect and dialogue

If there will be peace

~ Larry, Cambridge

ice tea and skittles

a hood and an attitude

trigger pulled, boy dead

~Polly

Community Activist, 02138

The madness must stop

Power kills and lives are lost Humanity please

~Jed

School Leader and Dad,

Central Square

My Black newborn son

Cradled in my arms today
Will he reach manhood?

~ Susan

Mother, Mid-Cambridge

Tough conversations

But they are necessary

To have together

~ Anonymous

Walking down the street

Does she only see my race
She glances away

~ Debra

Theater artist, mother, Area 4

Racial profiling

Getting stopped for being you

No one should endure

~ RJ

Citizen, Cambridge

Always make a change

Gonna make a difference

For once in our lives

~ M.M.

7th Grade Amigos School Student, Cambridge

Greatness is not a

Given item but rather

Something that is earned

~ DS

Student, Haggerty

Stop all the shooting

Why is color a problem

We are all the same

~ NJ

Student, Area Four

What is self defense?

Where is the line of extreme?

Racial Profiling

~Louisa

Student, North Cambridge

"It's not a race thing."

Mike Brown, Eric Garner: Dead James Holmes awaits court.

~Libbie

Student, Harvard

Breathe in, breathe out once

Again. Know that I am safe.

What about our sons?

~Jen

Mom, N. Cambridge

don't be colorblind

celebrate diversity

beautiful rainbow

~LJT

Doing The Best With What I Got

West Cambridge

MLK taught us

peace, love, determination,

can abolish hate

~ Joanie,

Teacher, Freshpond

Across solemn streets

Tears, no longer hooded, flow
One day they will ebb

~ Terry

Peace & Justice Activist, Fresh Pond

"Pluribus unum"

That so proudly they hail'd, with

Distrust in the streets

~ Gui

International observer

Central & Harvard Square

There is pain and yet

The future is a vista
beckoning us all

~ Mark

Teacher /Community Programs Director, The Port / Area IV

From my parents’ knees

I learned well what they taught us

Heart before color

~ Phoebe S.

Writer, wanderer, friend

If we take the time

To listen to each other

We will have more friends

~ Christine

Artist, Central/Kendall

Once more must we lift

Our voices in the name of

Freedom and justice

~ Daniel

Son and Brother,

West Cambridge