First Belief

The act of love
Is your belief.
We will grow into earth.
We can become one garden
With a million blooms of impulse.
When our lips wear thin
We will give up the things
We do not need
To find the thing we want.
May we never miss
The other's first smile.

Diana Cuts and Holds

It is her hair,
Wild as branches
As it whips in the breeze,
Calling the spring storm
As it passes
To leave behind all her leaves.

Down they come
From the barn beams,
Where they watched
Through the night,
On the bold wind
To her muddy bed,
To hunt in the tall grass,
To sing in her arms.

A Call to Integration in Advocacy Efforts

Dynamic collaboration and strategic approaches are vital in prevention and intervention advocacy in the areas of domestic and sexual violence.

Volunteer work and activism with the Sexual Assault/Domestic Violence Center in my city has given me perspective that values the unity of community advocates in fighting to protect the rights of every person.

Advocacy cannot be submerged or made secondary to the goals of careerism, territoriality, or to the effort of maintaining status quo. We define our commitment as advocates as being a part of a movement to end oppression. This definition constitutes solidarity with other movements to end oppression, such as oppression based on race, gender, sexual orientation/preference, social class, economic status or minority.

Advocates at the SA/DVC collaborate directly with a wide range of representatives from agencies and institutions at city, county, state and national levels to support victims of domestic and sexual violence. We provide accessible resources and information to our community and educate the public regarding the consequences of violence and the prevention of violence. The effects of domestic and sexual violence on children or minors, which can be at the hand of someone on whom they are dependent, legally or literally, is a major concern to advocates.

We must support social change that challenges the surrounding culture of domination which reinforces the violence of domestic and sexual perpetrators. This includes support of other movements which aim to end the many forms of oppression in our society.

The primary thrust of our efforts must be to support victims as we aim to eradicate oppression and be in solidarity with those for whom we advocate.

We must approach our work critically through diverse strategies, focusing clearly on ourselves and our environment, toward an integration of each individual's subjective needs. Collaboratively, we can confront the realities of how we are different from each other, what divides us and what can reconcile us, so that we can participate in a radical, ongoing transformation of our advocacy for each person -- each child, teenager, woman, man, partner, parent and guardian.

Let Me Tell You How

I am next to you
As this is happening.
You are my family now.
You are for me.
It's what you have said.
“He offered me wine,” I begin.
I want to tell you
How it happened,
But you are pounding the walls
With your fists.
You are staring at your knuckles,
At how your hands are bleeding now.
I try to begin again,
This time without words.
I reach for you.
You are rigid in my arms
And pull away,
“I will not touch you!”
Telling me
To call the man who raped me.
"Ask him."
Demand evidence he is healthy.
I want to tell you
How I feel,
But my feeling is in my body.
My body,
You will not touch my body.
The woman at the clinic
Who answers my questions
But not my fears
Tells me,
"We cannot know for months."

Now I am ever awake
Without your kisses or touch,
Without sex, blood or respite.
This is happening.
We need to understand.
Let me tell you how.

This is how to touch my body:
Let me tell you how.
This is how to touch my body:
Let me tell you how.
Let me tell you how.