Exclusion Memorial
Remembering exclusion, exile
as a fear response before my time
Constricting my breath here today
Whole families forced from homes
Down to end of the dock,
with only what they could carry,
infants, children clutching
pushed off edges onto ships
Sailing into oblivion…into exile
What do we push away, wall up
Cast out, constrict,
silence in ourselves out of fear?
Who do we exile within ourselves
The needy infant , innocent?
The child wonder, wanderer?
The teenage rage, the warrior?
The middle age weary, the martyr?
The frail yet sage elder, the magician?
As if sailing it to oblivion, into exile
Will finally bring peace within
When only loving all parts of ourselves
Allowing. softening. tenderness.
Will bring the peace we seek
heroism in the hero’s journey
Arises Not from conquering—
yet from embracing all parts of ourselves
When only loving all others as parts of ourselves
Will bring the peace we seek for the world
Remembering exclusion here
May we never forget the heroic power
We carry for inclusion
When we choose LOVE
Only when we choose love
May we bring the peace within & without
May we be heroes
in our choices of response
with love over fear
May we let it never happen again
“On March 30, 1942, 227 Japanese Americans living on Bainbridge Island were gathered at the Eagledale Ferry Dock and forcibly removed from the Island. The Bainbridge Islanders were first incarcerated in Manzanar Relocation Center in California and later transferred to Minidoka Relocation Center in Idaho.”
