Dear Readers,


I now consider this blog to be my Juvenelia. Have fun perusing the archives, and find me at my new haunt, here.

Monday, April 28, 2008

Monday Morning Poem: "Truth," by Gwendolyn Brooks

Truth

And if sun comes
How shall we greet him?
Shall we not dread him,
Shall we not fear him
After so lengthy a
Session with shade?

Though we have wept for him,
Though we have prayed
All through the night-years --
What if we wake one shimmering morning to
Hear the fierce hammering
Of his firm knuckles
Hard on the door?

Shall we not shudder?
Shall we not flee
Into the shelter, the dear thick shelter
Of the familiar
Propitious haze?

Sweet is it, sweet is it
To sleep in the coolness
Of snug unawareness.

The dark hangs heavily
Over the eyes.
-- Gwendolyn Brooks

Well, this poem may have religious overtones, but I picked it because it feels relevant to everything I've been thinking and feeling about how our society is reacting to this election year and how irresponsibly the media has been keeping us in the dark, literally, as Elizabeth Edwards so brilliantly described it this weekend. How hard it is for people to wake up to their own oppression, how we "cling", yep "cling" to scapegoats rather than facing the truth.

And now, to cling to the propitious darkness of this rainy day.

1 comment:

  1. Anonymous10:20 PM

    I believe that this poem is a reflection of
    Gwendolyn Brooks' desire to attain truth, though she realizes that it is herself that ultimately hinders the success. In addition, she strongly fought against racial segregation, therefore the poem could possibly be a message to those not open to equality. Perhaps she was making an analysis of her changing times in which women were acquiring more of a voice in society, which reaffirms the inferred theme of equality.

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