{"id":52075,"date":"2016-02-15T16:02:06","date_gmt":"2016-02-15T16:02:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/global\/?p=52075"},"modified":"2016-02-18T15:54:59","modified_gmt":"2016-02-18T15:54:59","slug":"human-a-student-poem","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/global\/2016\/02\/15\/human-a-student-poem\/","title":{"rendered":"Human, A Student Poem"},"content":{"rendered":"

This is a guest post by Rachael Manser, student at Gustavus Adolphus College, who went abroad on a Custom Short Term Program to Cuba with Augsburg CGEE January 2016.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

<\/div>\n
\"Rachel<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Here’s my Pedagogy of the Oppressed poem that I titled “Human”:<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

World and human beings do not exist apart from each other;<\/div>\n
They grow together as tree from soil,<\/div>\n
Body to trunk as hand to branch and thoughts to leaves.<\/div>\n
Yet, man is able to transcend,<\/div>\n
to grow beyond the bounds of the forest,<\/div>\n
if only he is recognized<\/div>\n
as human.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
But violence permeates the soil,<\/div>\n
hoarding all the nourishment and growing to ungodly heights<\/div>\n
while blaming those it poisons for their inadequacies.<\/div>\n
The trunks of man grow short and stubby<\/div>\n
for they have been convinced of their unfitness to rise,<\/div>\n
reduced to things;<\/div>\n
the struggle to see can only begin when the see themselves<\/div>\n
as human.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Yet, they try to keep us down,<\/div>\n
filling us as if we’re empty pots waiting for a plant.<\/div>\n
But we are restless, hopeful, and curious.<\/div>\n
Our ability to bloom is stifled<\/div>\n
for fear we may grow tall enough to view the world above the forest,<\/div>\n
to truly connect with the earth and sky.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
We will continue in our process of becoming;<\/div>\n
for as long as reality is unfinished,<\/div>\n
we will never cease to grow –<\/div>\n
the essence of our humanity.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
\n