Valerie Taylor
From OutHistory
A Valerie Taylor Photo Album
from the Rare and Manuscript Collections, Cornell University [1]
Early Life
College
Marriage
Career
Political Activism
In Her Own Words
The Sweet Little Old Gray-Haired Lady in Sneakers ��
Valerie Taylor, 1979
I am a woman
a poet
poor
handicapped
radical
Indian
Over seventy
An eight-time loser.
How shalI l not be a revolutionary?
How shalI l not see
My sister in every woman,
My brother in any man,
My child to cherish in every child?
When they dragged Jane Kennedy into solitary
that was my arm the cops were twisting.
When they dropped napalm on the rice paddies
that was my skin on fire,
That was my blood running out hot and sticky.
Goddess,
Give me eight kinds of strength to fight back.