CBC Trailblazer – Liz Clarke

Trailblazer - Liz.png

https://newsinteractives.cbc.ca/longform/liz-clarke?fbclid=IwAR0NWl2LBDKoilCcLa34Ft_whlc1KwbCcW5SWh9xm33R_1p5geIKlpxeHjE 

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/events/black-legacy-true-youth-stories-1.5007852?fbclid=IwAR1on6IW80QJ_uPlqExrQUMm6rPThNEYlWtX_w6a6cq3PWf_Dx2mCCbHLM0 

We ALL fALL

When we gracelessly fall on our face in public, down a flight of stairs, or an invisible stump in the middle of a flat sidewalk, sometimes the first thing that comes to mind isn’t “Damn.. I think I broke something ” what most of us are wishing for in this moment, is that somebody cute walking by hasn’t caught a glimpse of our fall, right? Amidst the internal chaos happening within us, what makes us save face, get up and take our next step? Maybe we’ve fallen in cold snow, we have somewhere to be or we realize that the fall really wasn’t that bad. When we think about the risk we take every time we walk, is there  something inside of us that would hinder us from trusting walking as a means of transportation from day to day?

In a sense falling can be compared to failing. In terms of seeing the goal of walking as the ability to put one foot in front of the other. So when we fall we’ve clearly failed at coordinating our feet and accomplishing the goal of walking and moving forward.What I’m getting at with this is that many of us fear falling, it causes us embarrassment, anxiety and forces us to take precautions in advance to avoid the incident all together. But when we do fall, do we lay there helplessly forever, do we always deny help to get up and do we give up on walking? We know walking  literally takes us places  and even if walking is not a blessing everyone of us has, do we all stop moving forward?

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Shepherdless

Now this is a generation that was meant to be heard

But it’s like shepherds trade their sticks for whips to beat youth with tongue lashes

We’re a blind herd trying to be led safely to our caskets

Our dreams weigh clouds down to earth

They burst and fill the sky with bright lights of visions just like fireworks

A colourful release of breath to give life to a once dead generation

Choked up in need of the Heimlich

Blown into the winds of desperation

Colours of the aurora borealis setting fire to idle minds

Their fingertips feel alive like an 87 year old woman cured from arthritis

Your bones feel ignited

Ambition is resuscitated

No chance of a reoccurring indictment

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Prodigy

I wasn’t born a prodigy, gifted or advanced for my level

Neither was I born with any delay

That they could say hindered my progress or ability to convey simple concepts understood by other kids my age

The challenge is seeing students be extraordinary and complimented on their brilliance and seeing kids doing poorly and neglected for their blatant disregard for the system set in place that only regards his marks and can’t put a name to his face

My apologies to the “they” in whom I should find fear in but

I cannot commit to the conformity

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