“Two Hands” Nonviolence Poem

In my Theory and Practice of Nonviolence Peace Studies class yesterday we had to split into groups to come up with a clever way to teach the rest of our class a portion of our assigned reading. The group I was in decided to write a poem to get our content across. We had to teach the class about Barbara Deming’s “two hands” of nonviolence and creative energy. I’ll leave my description of what those two things are at that and let you try to figure it out from the poem. Feel free to leave comments regarding the poem here. The poem itself is after the break.<blockquote>Deming wrote about the “Two Hands” In defiance of authority a person stands But concern for the others you must keep in mind So stand your ground but keep your heart kind

The action/reaction cycle must be broken So we should take nonviolence as the token So “shock and awe” is what we must do And Sharp calls this political ju-jitsu

Let’s cool the desire for retaliation And promote peace and love in every nation While the enemy thunders around like a troll The challenger maintains equilibrium and control

Violent methods always repels and divides While love on the other hand always provides Take the angry energy and turn it into learning This will create the solution for which everyone is yearning

Nonviolence enables us to hate the sin, not the sinner So in the end, everyone is still a winner Liberation sets the oppressor and oppressed free The movement ends where everyone is happy!

So let’s follow Gandhi, don’t be a dumb blondie.</blockquote>