On May 19, 2012, SA2020 shifted from the name of a community visioning process to the name of our nonprofit that drives progress toward a shared Community Vision. That means that today marks nine years (!) since the launch that put San Antonio on the path to be the only large city in the country with: a shared Community Vision, more than 170 multi-sector institutions aligning their work to that vision, and an independent nonprofit holding institutions accountable to shared goals. To celebrate, we’re looking back on a poem that San Antonio’s then-Poet Laureate Carmen Tafolla wrote and read for the launch on May 19, 2012. Nine years later, it still serves as a beautiful reminder of the shared vision San Antonians created together and the work committed to reaching it—”brick by brick, stone by stone, law by law, life by life.”
Do It
Carmen Tafolla, May 2012
a whisper of algo posible
a breath of dream
a shadow of vision
a twilit profile
of some possible future
Could we visualize?
Could we even
hope?
Could we put into daring words
our unborn yearnings
our unwritten goals
pale sprouts of wishes
not yet rooted enough
to have claimed their soil?
The meetings were set
for a building so large
we feared it would be half-empty
But the people came
and they came
and they came
arriving eagerly in cars and on bikes
in wheelchairs and on foot
by bus and by word of mouth
till the building overflowed
and a second space was needed,
absorbed the filling to the brim
Where CEOs met Homeless,
both passionate about the yearnings of their souls
and the beauty of their goals
Educators and Information Specialists
Environmentalists and Engineers
Historical Preservers and Advocates for Health
Parents of Young Children, Senior Citizens
Artists, Office Workers, Road Builders, Civil Rights Defenders
Guardians carving a sacred protection
gently, bravely, insisting on the possible
“PLEASE build everything Green, or not at all,” they said,
“Education is the Key that opens ALL the doors,” they said
“Fearless Innovation,” they said
“More Parks”, “Better Roads”
“Protect the People”
“Build it, Dream It, See it –
Big.
Clean.
Smart.”
Our pleas and plans waited –
breathless, carefully anointed.
Where Art students displayed their painted treasures
and the community college Jazz Band teased our ears, our lives
Where Travis High students wore placards that shouted
“Ask me about MY College Plans”
and a chanting chorus of 5th graders
performed the power of multiplication.
Where the homeless made the sandwiches for the meeting
Where the dreamers scribbled the questions for the next agenda
and the next
and the next
for a year of Dream It, Map It,
Dream It, Map It
* * * *
Now the seed of an idea grows tall,
the sweep of its cool shade consuming us
The dreaming, the mapping
become something we can ALMOST touch…
a passion stirs us
a possibility
a new surge of hope
From so many divergent paths
these people, the people of our pueblo
joined only by a vision
for a new world
one city, one family, many colors, many chords
Each meeting –a bold step forward on the path,
a new note in this symphony
of voices
all whispering, murmuring, drumming, shouting,
pulsing from their veins
the common, unspoken prayer
Just Do it
Do it
Do-o-o-o
It-t-t-t
Make It Come–brick by brick, stone by stone, law by law
life by life,
doors opening wide like the sunrise,
opening our eyes till at last, we see
what we CAN touch
what we WILL
reach.
