Poetry Month Project- The First Amendment, Pride, and the Service Records of Black Veterans

Happy Poetry Friday! Today we are hosted by Jone Rush MacCulloch. Check out her post here. Thanks Jone!

It's time for an update on my Poetry Month project! (As a reminder, this month I'm writing 20 poems about topics that Trump is trying to silence or erase, and each poem is inspired by a public domain image from government archives/websites.) Here are drafts of few of the poems I've been working on:

Topic: The First Amendment

Form: blackout poem

Image depicting a draft of the Bill of Rights, including the text of what became the First Amendment. Source: https://catalog.archives.gov/id/1408042

~Sarah Grace Tuttle '25

Topic: Pride

Form: free verse

2012 Gay Pride Parade, San Francisco, California. Photo Credit: The Jon B. Lovelace Collection of California Photographs in Carol M. Highsmith's America Project, Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division. Source: https://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/2013633364/

Lion Hearts on Parade

Our protest

is a riot of color

star-spangled and beautiful

shouting Out Loud

we are proud

to love

ourselves

our community

our history

we make the street echo

with the roar

of our rainbows.

~Sarah Grace Tuttle '25

Topic: the service records of Black veterans

Form: found poem mixed with free verse (lines in italics are words/phrases from the photo)

This image is part of an exhibition curated with the help of W.E.B. Du Bois for display in Paris, 1900. It shows the reasons that five African American men were awarded the Medal of Honor. Source: https://www.loc.gov/pictures/collection/anedub/item/2014645382/

They Earned Those Medals

because they

rendered gallant service

with care and precision

were

wounded but remained

left no one behind       

voluntarily aided in the rescue of wounded comrades

after several previous attempts had been frustrated

defied odds

Rallied a detachment

showed

coolness, bravery, unflinching devotion to duty

and honored their country,

declaring that through the fire of battle

“Boys, The old flag never touched the ground.”

~Sarah Grace Tuttle '25

Writing these poems has been very emotional. Even just searching for some of the images has proven distressing, as again and again I search for terms and see a pittance of results-- and sometimes no results-- in the Library of Congress archives. I wonder how much has already been erased or made inaccessible online, and I feel a pressure to write these all as fast as I can.

It feels so right to be engaging in this project at this time. In this political climate, protest is essential. And, using art to call attention to what the administration wants us to lose and forget? Well. That's just one of many ways to protest. I'm so grateful to our Poetry Friday community for finding so many different ways to raise our voices and meet this moment.

All the images I'm using in this project are (to the best of my knowledge) in the public domain. At the end of the project, I will be doing a little polishing of the poems and then compiling them into a single document that is free to download. A mini chapbook of protest poetry, if you will.

Onward!

Poetry Month Project Update: 7/20 drafted