To Julia de Burgos
By Julia de Burgos
The people are saying that I am your enemy,
That in poetry I give you to the world.
They lie, Julia de Burgos. They lie, Julia de Burgos.
The voice that rises in my verses is not your voice: it is my voice;
For you are the clothing and I am the essence;
Between us lies the deepest abyss.
Your are the bloodless doll of social lies
And I the virile spark of human truth;
You are the honey of courtly hypocrisy; not I—
I bare my heart in all my poems.
You, like your world, are selfish; not I—
I gamble everything to be what I am.
You are only the serious lady. Señora. Doña Julia.
Not I. I am life. I am strength. I am woman.
You belong to your husband, your master. Not I:
I belong to nobody or to all, for to all, to all
I give myself in my pure feelings and thoughts.
You curl your hair and paint your face. Not I:
I am curled by the wind, painted by the sun.
You are the lady of the house, resigned, submissive,
Tied to the bigotry of men. Not I:
I am Rocinante, bolting free, wildly
Snuffling the horizons of the justice of God.
Directions:
You are going to build a house with a room for each of your distinct voices. You may design your house to look like a mansion or a fashionable cardboard box house. First start at the bottom middle of your paper and draw a box and place your name in it. Then make additional rooms that contain the name of the voice (not a tone) and at least a 4 word (not letter) phrase you might say in that voice. Create a total of ten rooms with ten different voices and phrases in them (the room with your name in it does not count).
