International Day Against Violence

 

Standing Tall

(ANONYMOUS)

Breathing, looking, feeling and walking
Deciding, choosing, living and talking
Just like a developing child; an adolescent learning
Just like an endless beginning a genuine yearning

Independent, supported or alone
Beg, borrow, or maybe one day I'll even own
There is definitely a light and it is calling me
Close my eyes spread my wings and I will fly free

No more shame, pretend, cheap smiles and lies
No more ifs, buts, maybes or whys?
Who are you? What do you want? How do you sleep?
I know now I am not your possession to abuse and keep

You were right, it's dramatic, and all for show
But it was you in the lead role, so desperate to grow
Like a parasite you tried to consume and destroy my life
Like a human being I tried to be your partner, friend and wife

Go back to where you came from; it is what you do best
Go back to being nothing,; an annoying little pest
And when you get there be sure look up high
Can you see me beaming brightly, lighting up the sky

Each night I am reminded that you are evil, selfish and vile
Each night I am reminded how lucky I am, blessed and smile
You should see them now you've gone; happy, confident and born again
All their own work, they erased you and survived any pain

It was much easier than I thought; you can't miss what was never there
But unlike you, I did feel true love, I wanted to grow, experience and share
What a waste, a pointless thought and an unwanted gift
All you saw was credibility, an excuse and blame to shift

It is getting closer, that beautiful light calling me
Close my eyes spread my wings and I am flying free
It's over, just give up and please let us be
Never again imprisoned, now and forever I'm holding the key

Your self-pity and fairy tales fall on deaf ears
Your stories and lies create no sympathy tears
One by one everyone is hearing the truth
T.R.U.T.H. comes with real evidence and proof

I swear this is the final night you will give me no sleep
There's no master plan or cunning revenge for me to reap
You are a lonely little man, idiot, bully, gambling fool
You've lost again; tough guy but I've got it all
Do you feel small?
                                               Pathetic and cruel                                                 
                                                       Down, down you fall                                                                            At last I am standing tall
...We've got it all

 

 STUDENTS COMMENTS:

 When you read this poem at first, you can’t notice how deep and powerful it is. You need to read it a few times. It encompasses many things about domestic/gender violence. It makes you think about how hard and sad  this situation can be and sometimes it makes you feel like you’re the one who’s living that situation. At the beginning of the poem it shows her weakness, but as it goes on, it starts to show that if you’re strong and brave you can get through it, start a new life and be happy. Some mothers, women living a situation of violence, they think they have to stay for their kids, because they don’t want them to grow up without their dad. But sometimes they don’t think about how hard life will be for their kids too. I think she’s trying to say that no one deserves being treated like that or feeling like this. You don’t have to stand that. You can be strong by yourself.

                        -Alba Medina González (1º BAC D)

  This poem about gender-based violence reflects the situation of a badly treated woman, who comes over this fact just with what we consider her children. Although the poem itself is quite fair and shows clearly the feelings of the author, who we know is so strongwilled in a situation of gender violence, the circumstances go beyond the bad-treatment typical from an heterosexual couple and also from men to women (including physical, mental and oral violence). The gender-based violence is extended to lots of contexts. Both individuals and institutions (for example, violence during the pregnancy). Also from women to men (although this derives from patriarchy). And in homosexual couples as well. In my opinion, it would have been better to expose the attitudes of a patriarchal society in general and think about why domestic violence cases are seen as common, rather than simply focusing on one case.

                        -Ana Rodríguez González (1º BAC D)

   This text wants reflect the experience of a girl that needed to get away from her husband’s abuses. At the beginning of the poem, the girl considers herself like an undeveloped person, without freedom to choose or make her own opinions; nevertheless, she wants to get out of that situation. She begins to wonder about her not being an object and reveals her husband’s masquerades. Then, as they were fighting she told him to go back where he came from and when she said ‘’Can you see me beaming brightly, lighting up the sky’’ I think it was to break the chains that hurt her. In the seventh paragraph I think the man went out, the girl keeps talking about her real love but with one difference. He was already alone. In the last part of the poem I understood this in two ways. The first is when she said: ‘’that beautiful light calling me’’ as if she was dying and when she mentioned ‘’T.R.U.T.H. comes with real evidence and proof’’ .  I think the man abused the girl to death and everyone will know who  has been; I confirmed that when I read at the final paragraph ‘’I swear this is the final night you will give me no sleep’’ and she mentioned he is a lonely man. My other way to understand it is as if she says goodbye for all he did and only mentioned ‘’spread my wings and I will fly free’’ like a liberation to living away from him. In general there are many ways to understand it, but in all of those appear the gender violence that causes deaths every day because of selfish and possessive people. Last, I have to say that all violence is bad and we should solve the problems with words, not with our hands.

                         -Miguel Bea Pintos (1º BAC D)