christina61
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Karma: 0 |  | Audre Lorde: We Rise from War
« Thread Started on Oct 16, 2008, 5:25pm » | |
Here's Audre Lorde in a poem describing being in a garden she shares with her partner. I hope journal responses examine how we feel to "rise from war" in our own lives and gardens. There are similar themes between Lorde's poem and Sarton's excerpt in an earlier thread. Rich loam for our words today. Write, then post please. Share your visions for future gardens, both literal and figurative. Christina
Walking Our Boundaries
This first bright day has broken
the back of winter.
We rise from war
to walk across the earth
around our house
both stunned that sun can shine so brightly
after all our pain
Cautiously we inspect our joint holding.
A part of last year's garden still stands
bracken
one tough missed okra pod clings to the vine
a parody of truth cold-hard and swollen
underfoot
one rotting shingle
is becoming loam.
I take your hand beside the compost heap
glad to be alive and still
with you
we talk of ordinary articles
with relief
while we peer upward
each half-afraid
there will be no tight buds started
on our ancient apple tree
so badly damaged by last winter's storm
knowing
it does not pay to cherish symbols
when the substance
lies so close at hand
waiting to be held
your hand
falls off the apple bark
like casual fire
along my back
my shoulders are dead leaves
waiting to be burned
to life.
The sun is watery warm
our voices
seem too loud for this small yard
too tentative for women
so in love
the siding has come loose in spots
our footsteps hold this place
together
as our place
our joint decisions make the possible
whole.
I do not know when
whe shall laugh again
but next week
we will spade up another plot
for this spring's seeding.
The Black Unicorn, Poems, Audre Lorde, W.W. Norton, 1978
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kbecker
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Karma: 0 | | Re: Audre Lorde: We Rise from War
« Reply #1 on Nov 1, 2008, 8:44pm » | |
These lines struck me:
"it does not pay to cherish symbols
when the substance
lies so close at hand"
My own (wompo anthology) poem, The Fallen Apples, also addresses "ris(ing) from war."
Thanks for offering this poem as a meditation for our own work. I have not kept journals for some time (tho I did so for years); now I just may have to start again.
Kim
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christina61
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Karma: 0 | | Re: Audre Lorde: We Rise from War
« Reply #2 on Nov 2, 2008, 11:01pm » | |
Now that I am living in an old house in an inner city and the shingles from the roof that have fallen in the yard over the decades are also growing loam, I appreciate this poem by Lorde even more than when I first read her book shortly after it came out. "We rise from war to walk across the earth..." This seems to be most of my life, this rising from war, and this walking across the earth, too. "Our footsteps hold this place together..." there is magic in this tired city lot. And the miracles of spring seeding to anticipate. This poem is so hopeful against the odds. That's what I love about Lorde's work, how she is always aware of beating the odds against her and this strength and resiliency in the face of adversity becomes an essential, too, for me, as I read her.
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lisajean
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Karma: 0 | | Re: Audre Lorde: We Rise from War
« Reply #3 on Nov 8, 2008, 3:07pm » | |
Maybe many of us do this, walk the borders of our "space." Especially, I think, those of us who live where winter blankets everything, then suddenly there is the miracle of spring and we need to prove to ourselves that things are still alive and tiny pointy green things will indeed swell up and prove the resilience of nature.
I know that I do that. I check the borders in fall too, to make sure everything is put to bed.
This is a lovely poem and I just ordered Lordes book from my library.
Lisa
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christina61
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Karma: 0 | | Re: Audre Lorde: We Rise from War
« Reply #4 on Nov 8, 2008, 6:17pm » | |
Let me/us know what you think of Lorde's book, if you are so inclined!
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