Pride Poem Anthology 2024
Pride month is every month, but as we say goodbye to June, and stores/brands go back to pretending LGBTQIA+ people don’t exist for another year, it’s important to reflect on our identities and the symbols we choose to represent us. So why a rainbow flag? Is it 8 or 6 colors? What do they mean and why is there a flag with a triangle? Let’s talk about it.
The original pride flag was commissioned by the first openly queer elected official in the United States, Harvey Milk. This flag, created by artist Gilbert Baker, had 8 colors. Each one with its own meaning:
Pink: sex
Red: life
Orange: healing
Yellow: sunlight
Green: nature
Turquoise: magic/art
Indigo: serenity
Purple: spirit
However, a combination of high demand and the difficulty to dye the hot pink and turquoise stripes, led to the reduction of the colors from eight to six. Then in 2018, as the importance of intersectionality became more apparent, non-binary American artist, Daniel Quasar, designed a new flag. The new design combined the six colors of the old flag with a triangle that incorporated five new colors and meanings: black and brown to represent people of color and light blue, pink, and white to represent trans and gender non-conforming people. The triangle itself points forward representing social progress as well.
All this to say that symbols evolve with people and that meaning is a collaborative effort that we have the responsibility to keep up. So, in honor of pride, inclusion, and diversity, please enjoy our first rainbow poem anthology!
Rojo
By Anthony J. Núñez Benítez
Rojo coraje pósase en mis venas
Un chirrido agobiante
resalta los contornos
De mi jaqueca
Sigue la rabia
Dispersa
Al atardecer escarlata
Expándese infinita
Como rayos cálidos
Rige su andar
Armando bullicio sórdido
Sobre ásperos carmesíes
Y rugen de respetos
Infrarrojos en su profunda
Penumbra
Ahogándose así
Toda cortesía
Bajo su gélido
“pero…”
An ode to pink
By Madalyn Heinle
She smells like my childhood and looks like my dreams
She feels like nostalgia and encompasses my being
She is a reminder of softness and care
She is a lesson in love and a movement
Through community and beauty she displays herself
She is sneered at and mocked
She is unacceptable and too much
Too loud too wild
Untamed and in need of structure
In need of control
She is controversial
She is just being herself
People hate her
But she is so beautiful
She is more than what they say
She is me and she is you and she is her
She is my mother and my daughter
And she is everyone who feels like her
She is pink
[BLUE]
In the photos you scroll through late at night
All of the lights are on
Shining yellow through your old bedroom window
Into the dark blue velvet night
And for a split-second, it seems as if you could walk through the front door
That you always forgot to lock
You could walk into your old house and into your old bedroom,
They’d all welcome you back with open arms
And you could do it all over again, and this time you’d do it right,
Or so you tell the girl in the photos
But blue is a color that makes no apologies,
A color that wears its heart on its sleeve
And all of those photos are just pretty memories
You and I both know that the only road we can take is the one that goes forward
Evergreen
By Estefanía Cervantes Piña
My fathers eyes are green
Like the dark healthy foliage
of an evergreen
In the mountains elevated
Always proud
vibrant he seems
For evergreen
Forever green
Tall as he looks down
From above
Smiling
at his child
Wild and free
For ever green
Forever green
Rooted in his dark soil
My evergreen
longs to see
His birthplace
But he is stuck in place
By land and sea
Fed by rivers
Don’t you see?
For evergreen
Forever green
So he swallows his woes
And somehow he knows
In life he will give
And in death he will still live
Through memories bestowed
On the land once towed
For evergreen
Forever green
His irises change to gray
When storms come his way
And They shine blue
Reflecting the hue of his pride in you
But steadfast is his love
Because you see
Of green eyes is he
My tree
My Papi
For evergreen
Forever green
Lavender
By Natalie Eilerman
Lavender
A color originally to empower
And what has become my soft safe space
My house painted with grace.
My lavender walls yield
A calm feeling found in their fields.
Blooming, learning, growing.
Oh what a hope they are sewing.
So thus, I find comfort in this wall
Through every success and every fall,
I rise and stand tall
Just like the lavender harvest haul.
Oh, how a color can convey such a peace
Bringing me to smile with such ease.
Because feeling comfortable in myself,
That is the true wealth.
Orange
By Jarod Karls
Orange heals the queer soul
Out of the darkness, the sun shines
Together, we are seen
