DEAR MEN
Dear men,
just beneath our rage
lies a mountain
of profound aching sorrow
at how far we've been
from true connection with you.
Just beneath our rage
is an ocean
of grief
at how terribly sad we are
that you haven't known
how to meet us as equals.
Just beneath our rage
lies a continent of desire
for our wholeness
to be seen, welcomed, respected, loved.
Just beneath our rage
our power
so wants to be honored,
our intelligence
so deeply wants
to be valued
and celebrated,
our feelings to be respected,
our work
to be appreciated
an remunerated,
our voices
to be heard,
our hearts to be seen,
with tender eyes,
our bodies
to be safe
and unconditionally beautiful
just as they are.
We want to love
and be loved
as full humans
and we're terribly sad
at how hard this has been.
We rage about the small spaces
we've been taught to put ourselves in
that somehow
shrinking from our fullness
might reach you.
We rage at how far we've been taught
we've had to leave ourselves
that we might find you
in our own absence.
We want you with us
in your powerful wholeness,
we want to heal with you,
we want healthy relationship,
we want tenderness,
we want power together,
we want it all ―
all of us
all of you
in respect, honor and love
and we've been terribly violated
and profoundly hurt
and we need acknowledgement
and repair
we want amends
that acknowledge the depth and layered-ness
and length
of the violation
that honor what it's meant
to walk this world as woman
so that the myriad breaches
may be bridged.
Oh, we want it to be safe enough
with you
to finally dive in together
to that ocean of grief
just beneath that rage
that unentered has set us like islands
so far apart from each other
that there might be a connective path
toward great healing
and return.
Dear men, try to understand our rage ―
it hasn't happened in a vacuum.
Our pain is deep and fiery
and for a reason.
The violation and desecration
of women is ancient
and we all carry a lineage of terror,
abuse and dehumanization within us
in a wound linked to you
so vast
we barely now where
to begin entering it
though our deepest hearts
do want
to move through and beyond it
together with you
back to our nobility
back to our dignity
back to our wholeness
back to each other.
― Chelan Harkin
From Let Us Dance!: The Stumble
and Whirl With the Beloved 
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