In several book group sessions we read Joy Harjo's poem "I Give You Back" in which the speaker addresses fear as a living person, a person she's harbored in her heart and who she is finally ready to let go. "I release you, I release you, I release you" is the refrain of the poem. She gives fear back to those who've produced it in her, reclaiming freedom and selfhood.
Following our discussion of "I Give You Back," we asked the girls to think of an emotion, an experience, a way of thinking, anything that they might want to let go, imagining and then writing about this thing as a person and addressing it face-to-face. These are a few of their poems.
I release you, fear. I'm letting go now
so you can be elsewhere. Let me
be free now. I've opened my eyes
and I can see the truth. I'm not
going to fear life anymore. You're not
going to be there anymore when I
look into the mirror.
Alexandra Perez
Age 18
Irene Dugan Alternative High School
I release I release the little girl I carry within me
I release it from my future
I release it to go back into the past
I am releasing
you, the little girl that I always
wanted to be I still want to be
Daddy's little girl
but that is in the past
it's time for adulthood
responsibilities I want to
be the big girl in the future!
I release you
I release you
you you you
little girl
you are released!
Alicia Tovar
Age 20
Second Chance Alternative High School
I release you pain, pain I release you.
I release the black eyes, I release the purple bruises,
my heart can't take any more, I want no more pain.
I release my mind, because I have to be strong,
I cry at night to let out my pain.
I release my face from your fist,
I release my heart from your hate,
I release my hair from your grip,
I release my eyes, because they
were always scared.
I release you pain, pain I release you,
I release you pain, pain I release you,
NOW LEAVE!
Yalitza Sanchez
Age 21
Second Chance Alternative High School
That one man, the one who
swears he loves me, travels me
from high to low whenever he
desires it.
That one man, that says
I'm his everything, will
look the other way when he's
talking to me.
That man, that said he'd
be there for me, disappeared
within a blink of my eyes.
That one man, that I let
go over the threshold and over
the knee, wasted the moon
that was too beautiful to
waste.
Now I release you,
I evacuate you out of my
heart, you no longer live in
my soul, you are no longer
the blanket that once
covered my love.
I release you because you've
hurt me, I release you because
I'm afraid that you might
once more make me miserable.
I no longer want you, I've
forgot, forgotten, forget.
Past tense and no regrets.
Irais Rodriguez
Age 17
Irene Dugan Alternative High School
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