Puerto Rican independentista and long-held political prisoner Oscar López Rivera made this painting during the time people were sending positive healing energy Marilyn’s way … it was at the same time he learned that his sister was ill. He would run in the mornings and send his energy every half mile, to both. The painting is based on a photo of a woman who survived the same cancer Marilyn had… in the hopes that she, too, would be able to survive. It’s called La Sobreviviente, 29″ x 24″
hat tip to js
… is a reflection by Marilyn published in Tricycle: The Buddhist Review. An excerpt:
I learn to lay aside anxiety about what I am missing, what I do not have, what might happen to me … Without the armor of my anger and self-righteousness, I become intimate with the many forms of suffering in this (prison) world.
See the whole article, “The Freedom to Breathe“.
When I heard that Marilyn died, barely three weeks after she was released from a lifetime in prison, memories from forty years ago sprang back to mind.
They were chilling times. We were young. We wanted change. And the government had gone to war against us. Terrible things happened. When a friend of “medium height, medium afro” suddenly became a suspect in the murder of a cop, I knew we were ‘guilty’ until proven innocent. I remember seeing a xeroxed copy of an internal document of the SFPD – a page full of mug shots, mostly young Black men, labeled ‘Suspected BLA terrorists’. My friend’s photo was there. And so was Marilyn Buck’s.
Back then, I felt suspicious of white activists who seemed to risk their lives supporting Black nationalist or liberation organizations. Like guilt was their motive. Like they might take orders from Stalin if he were Black. But Marilyn’s history has roots I can grasp and respect deeply. She came straight out of Texas. Her father was a minister who integrated his church during the civil rights movement, and the family got their share of cross burnings and midnight threats as a result. Marilyn’s story, for one, made me take a deeper ‘think.’
Well. You can read her story . . . her powerful poetry . . .on this blog and on MarilynBuck.com.
I never knew her in person, but I have friends who did. Good people who faithfully made the grueling visits to prison to be with her through these long years of isolation behind the walls.
When she died, I felt humbled. Now I know her in a way I never did. And she makes me proud for our times, our own small lives with giant-size hopes. For the fighting spirits that rise from this broken land. Straight out Texas. With John Brown’s spirit all the way.
lj
[Editor’s note: see Marilyn’s poem, “Jasper, TX” for more on her Texas roots]
The Certain Days collective posted their own tribute plus the article she submitted for the 2011 Certain Days: Freedom for Political Prisoners Calendar on their web site Extras page.
Check it out there; it was too late to be included in the calendar itself, which you can see (and order) here.
For Marilyn Buck in Black August
preacher’s daughter[1]
what is a wall
what blooms beyond the body
what is left
*
you could write a letter
into dandelion wish
thread hope into green garlands
*
to wear catechism loose
form everyday practice
life lost nurturing life eternal
*
what is a wall
patient gardener of the word yes
unwilling to wait for the language
we could say it in
*
what is a fist
what blooms in explosion
in excelsis
in the decision to risk everything
and never take it back
*
poisoned decades
flowering furiously
into cancer
*
answer me this
marilyn
*
you who can never again be
interrogated
isolated
chained
*
where do they grow
white girls like you
awake and ready
to catch hell with both hands open
*
what is a wall
what blooms
what is left
Marilyn had a choice. She could have remained silent; she could have reaped the benefits of white-skin privilege. But instead she chose the path of righteousness. She has defended the have-nots, the powerless, and as a woman she has struggled for the liberation of all women. The only reason that she remains incarcerated is because of her political activism.
She needs and deserves the support of all those who are committed to freedom and the abolition of pain and suffering on this earth. She deserves to be supported, she deserves to be respected, and she deserves to be free.
San Francisco Bay View Editor, Mary Ratcliffe, did a terrific layout in tribute to Marilyn that includes photos, art, and her incredible poetry. Kudos and thanks to Mary for honoring our martyred shero. — KN
sfbayview.com/2010/marilyn-buck-september-11-2001
She was the first name on our banner …
fanta (Paris)
by Mariann Wizard
(my first time to actually use Word Press; thanks for inviting me!)
As a member of the Austin Poetry Society (www.austinpoetrysociety.org), I have made arrangements to sponsor a contest for poems on the theme of “Repression and Resistance”, in honor of Marilyn Buck, in the coming year. The contest will be open to all members of the Austin Poetry Society, and only to members. Membership is open to all for a small fee. There will be small monetary prizes for first, second, and third place poems. There is also a small fee to enter, that covers entry to all of APS’ several annual contests. As a sponsor, I am ineligible to enter this particular contest, and hope to encourage some explicitly political verse by new poets.
As an APS member, I am also ineligible to judge a contest. Judging doesn’t bring any monetary reward, and may involve reading a good bit of poor verse as well as, I hope, some outstanding poems, and actually choosing among them, or even deciding that not all prizes should be awarded. It might be considered a mildly prestigious task.
A judge should be a published poet, and it would be delightful to have someone with added “poetic credentials”: an editor or teacher, perhaps?
Please, readers of this blog, tell me who should judge this contest in Marilyn’s honor, and get me in touch with that person! I will pass along contact information to APS annual contest officials, who will issue an invitation to participate. If YOU are the right person, and are willing, please, don’t hesitate to volunteer!
Please pass this post along to accomplished poets you know who admired Marilyn, who read at benefits for her, or who read on her CD, “Wild Poppies”! We only need one person (for this year), will the right poet(s) please step forward?
Thanks!!
marilynbuckpresente.org 