PostPoems Be Artistic. Be Creative. Be Inspired!

Call-and-Response: Keep the Flame Dancing

(to be read aloud by many voices in staggered echo, soft then strong)

Leader: Who speaks when silence falls like ash?

Voices (soft echo): We do. We rise.]

Leader: Who holds the word when it’s cast out?

Voices (building): We do. We write.

Leader: And what is sacred?

Voices (scattered): The tremble before truth.

      The hush that welcomes. The body in full bloom.

Leader: They buried our poems in shame—

Voices (firm): —we planted gardens there.

Leader: They called our tongues blasphemy—

Voices (strong): —we made them into bell chimes.

Leader: They locked the book.

Voices: We tore the pages into wings.

Leader: So now we write:

All Together (then echoed): Not in fear. Not in permission.

          But in flame.

Leader: And what do we call the ones they silenced?

Voices (reverent): Ancestors. Teachers. Kindling.

Leader: And what do we make now?

All Voices (rising, overlapping): A canon of compassion.

A scripture of song. A gospel of the unheard. A poem with no gate.

Leader (whispered): And when the wind tries to snuff us out?

Final Chorus (like fire catching): We keep the flame dancing.

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