{"id":18459,"date":"2013-05-17T16:25:05","date_gmt":"2013-05-17T23:25:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/alternativejonestown.com\/?page_id=18459"},"modified":"2024-10-11T11:05:02","modified_gmt":"2024-10-11T18:05:02","slug":"poems-sent-by-pat-grunnet","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/?page_id=18459","title":{"rendered":"Children’s Poems from Summer 1977 & Summer 1978"},"content":{"rendered":"

[Editor’s note<\/strong>: A Spanish translation of this page appears here<\/a>.]<\/em><\/p>\n

Mr. Kozol\u2026 A year ago our youngsters were acquainted with grief, suffered the oppression of racism and the frustration of the strait-jacket of American Public Education. The expressions of their feelings are evident in these poems written in the summer of 1977 in the USA.<\/p>\n

The screams, the cries, the claws as the gas fills the packed room,
\nThe thoughts of terror and shock,
\nNot knowing if you will awaken after a second of sleep.
\nWithout a breath of clean, sanitary air,
\nThe mushy spoonful that you get,
\nThe leftovers from the poor man\u2019s dog,
\nThe angry cry of the mother without her child,
\nStanding in the winters greedy air,
\nWithout an inch of clothing upon your naked body.
\nYanking and slaughtering of your loved ones,
\nYour insides burning with anger, sorrow and hurt,
\nThe makers of oppression are haunting you.
\nThe pain increases to where you are numbed with lingering thoughts.
\nThe moments you have left,
\nYou and your continuous thoughts with
\nSorrow, doubt and questioning.<\/p>\n

As I sit here in this cold, damp cell, I remember the times when I was doing well.
\nLife has stopped for me now. I\u2019m doing time.
\nIt\u2019s do this and do that and don\u2019t get out of line.
\nIt\u2019s up at seven and do as the pigs say.
\nThat\u2019s how it is each and every day.
\nOn nights when I can\u2019t sleep
\nAnd letters never arrive from my so-called nigger friends so deeply deprived,
\nSometimes I wonder what the hell is keeping me alive.<\/p>\n

If I were President of the United States
\nI could murder millions of black people and
\nI wouldn\u2019t do time.
\nIf I were a big corporator I could fix up prices and
\nCheat people out of their money.
\nI wouldn\u2019t do time.
\nMe, I\u2019m a Hype.
\nI sold two nickle [nickel] bags to feed my babies.
\nI\u2019m doing life \u2013 brothers and sisters \u2013
\nA day at a time.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\u2026 and this next poem was written by youngsters who in the States would have been branded incorrigible. They didn\u2019t want to read because they couldn\u2019t read. They didn\u2019t want to write because they couldn\u2019t write. There they call it Learning Disabilities\u2026 here, it\u2019s translated Learning Opportunities. They\u2019re reading because they want to read what they\u2019ve written and they\u2019ve written it because it makes sense. They\u2019re writing because they\u2019ve got a whole lot of stuff inside themselves to tell people. They\u2019re finding out that they can paint pictures with words and even make people giggle, cry, or get angry\u2026 just with words (their old enemy). The roadblocks are gone\u2026 spelling, punctuation and grammar come after the ideas come tumbling out and only then to aid the reader, not to handicap the writer. Jonestown has allowed them the freedom to express themselves and provided a wealth of \u201chappenings\u201d to share. They no longer have to sit in a straight-backed chair in a straight-backed classroom and imagine what it might feel like to swing on a vine, sit in a tree or take an anteater to lunch. They\u2019re doing it and writing about it and they\u2019re loving it!<\/p>\n

WE SEE A NEW DAY \u2013 WE FEEL A NEW WAY<\/center><\/p>\n

In the jungle\u2026
\n we see black toucans with green and red and yellow vests,
\n we don\u2019t see housing projects,
\n we see blue butterflies as big as your two hands,
\n we don\u2019t see gangs fighting,
\n we see a spider spinning a silvery web,
\n we don\u2019t see rapes and muggings,
\n we see fish beating their way up the falls,
\n we don\u2019t see pollution,
\n we see monkeys jumping in the air,
\n we don\u2019t see capitalism,
\n we see ants chopping leaves like scissors and packing them to their holes,
\n we don\u2019t see jails,
\n we see a white kind of flower that smells like vanilla,
\n we don\u2019t see police cars,
\n we see rhinoceros beetles crawling from tree to tree,
\n we don\u2019t see price tags,
\n we see yellow, red and blue macaws flying over two by two,
\n we don\u2019t see trash,
\n we see lightning bugs twinkling,
\n we don\u2019t see hungry children,
\n we see a slow, brown, pretty sloth moving to a higher branch,
\n we don\u2019t see seniors crying and dying,
\n we see candle-flies glowing at night \u2026 in the jungle.<\/p>\n

In the jungle\u2026
\n we hear water trickling over logs and rocks,
\n we don\u2019t hear guns shooting and killing,
\n we hear macaws squawking,
\n we don\u2019t hear babies crying,
\n we hear sun bees bzzt, bzzt, bzzting,
\n we don\u2019t hear police sounds,
\n we here branch snapping and cracking and crashing through other branches to the floor of the jungle,
\n we don\u2019t hear families fussing,
\n we hear the six o\u2019clock bees buzzzzzzzzzzing,
\n we don\u2019t hear trash cans banging,
\n we hear the wind whistling through the trees,
\n we don\u2019t hear buses roaring and cars crashing an ambulance sirens screaming,
\n we hear fish splish, splash, splishing,
\n we don\u2019t hear cash registers,
\n we hear crickets going tick, tick, tick,
\n we don\u2019t hear racist remarks,
\n we hear frogs burping,
\n we don\u2019t hear Carter\u2019s curious words,
\n we hear quiet \u2026 in the jungle.<\/p>\n

In the jungle\u2026
\n we feel fish nibbling at our toes,
\n we don\u2019t feel napalm or torture,
\n we feel smooth and rough bark on the trees,
\n we don\u2019t feel over-crowded or over-pressured,
\n we feel mud squishing up between her toes,
\n we don\u2019t feel alone or left out,
\n we feel sand rubbing against our feet,
\n we don\u2019t feel racism or hatred,
\n we feel cool water pouring over our heads,
\n we don\u2019t feel like committing suicide,
\n we feel a cool breeze blowing,
\n we don\u2019t feel put down or imprisoned,
\n we feel sun rays touching our hands,
\n \u2026 and we don\u2019t feel sad or scared\u2026 anymore.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[Editor’s note: A Spanish translation of this page appears here.] Mr. Kozol\u2026 A year ago our youngsters were acquainted with grief, suffered the oppression of racism and the frustration of the strait-jacket of American Public Education. The expressions of their feelings are evident in these poems written in the summer of 1977 in the USA. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"parent":13187,"menu_order":5,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-18459","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/18459","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=18459"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/18459\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":128379,"href":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/18459\/revisions\/128379"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/13187"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=18459"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}