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 |  Blogging about all things poetry - starting with 30 days and 30 poems |
| March 30 I went looking for poems about hope. I found A Litany for Survival by Audre Lorde. This one struck me. The line 'we were never meant to survive' sounds ominous, but one must remember: with our birth, our death is coming. It is inevitable because no one lives forever. The thing is one must live our lives as if death were coming... seeing it as a teacher, not a taker. Consider how would you live your life it you knew you only had a week to live? Would you reach out to loved ones and tell them how precious they are to you? Would you follow your dreams and make a mark for yourself? I think, in the last stanza of this poem "It is better to speak/ remembering/ we were never meant to survive", that's what she is saying. So as we live in a world with our current pandemic, try to live your life to the fullest. Don't hide in fear. Reach out to others by text, phone call or video chat. So what you can to live in the present and not dwell on the unknown future or the past you cannot change. This poem illuminates a concept that I read about in The Untethered Soul by Michael A. Singer; live your life in the present. Death teaches you that. I blogged about this earlier this month. It is all perception my friends, how are you going to perceive this; are you going to live or hide in fear? A Litany for Survival BY AUDRE LORDE For those of us who live at the shoreline standing upon the constant edges of decision crucial and alone for those of us who cannot indulge the passing dreams of choice who love in doorways coming and going in the hours between dawns looking inward and outward at once before and after seeking a now that can breed futures like bread in our children’s mouths so their dreams will not reflect the death of ours; For those of us who were imprinted with fear like a faint line in the center of our foreheads learning to be afraid with our mother’s milk for by this weapon this illusion of some safety to be found the heavy-footed hoped to silence us For all of us this instant and this triumph We were never meant to survive. And when the sun rises we are afraid it might not remain when the sun sets we are afraid it might not rise in the morning when our stomachs are full we are afraid of indigestion when our stomachs are empty we are afraid we may never eat again when we are loved we are afraid love will vanish when we are alone we are afraid love will never return and when we speak we are afraid our words will not be heard nor welcomed but when we are silent we are still afraid So it is better to speak remembering we were never meant to survive. "A Litany for Survival." Copyright © 1978 by Audre Lorde, from The Collected Poems of Audre Lorde by Audre Lorde. https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/147275/a-litany-for-survival    |
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