The World Rising
©2017 by Alice Walker
The world rising
Can put an end
To anything:
The murder of children
Whales
Elephants
Oceans.
Get up. Roll over
On that part
Of you
That will not
Welcome
Recognize
Encourage
Or even see
Our rise.
A compassionate roll:
We must be done
With cruelty
Especially to ourselves,
To start again
Beaming like the… Continue reading
Nuestras hermanas se levantan
O en la hamaca con el I Ching
Heaven and water go their opposite ways:
The image of CONFLICT
Thus in all his transactions the superior man
Carefully considers the beginning.
–I Ching or Book of Changes
… Continue reading
Poem for the man who translates my poems: Cuban poet Manuel Verdecia/with Alice in Havana in the 90s.
I Cannot Thank You Enough
©2017 by Alice Walker
I cannot thank you enough
for holding on to me
all those years ago
in hopeful Cuba. My niece was just there
in the land I’ve loved so long,
and she told me… Continue reading
“Nigger”
In the Language of Love
(Turning a poison into medicine)
©2017 by Alice Walker
For all those who remind us how this works.
Pretty soon we might all be niggers –
A just karma is beginning to
snow down upon us.
Maybe you will be happier then:
to find you can indeed
live on your knees
and sometimes create… Continue reading
Sobonfu Somé
You left us on the day women all over the world
Are rising.
Well, you rose too, sweetest
Of sisters.
You rose and I can see you smiling
As you returned to the village
Of Dano.
The ancestors
Who, as they are wont to do,
Asked far too much of you,
Are there to receive you.
I hope they are!
For… Continue reading
PRAYER TO THE GREAT AWARENESS
Copyright 2017 by Alice Walker
January 21, 2017
(For the awakening.)
I do not doubt that you are there
and that I am also, in some future
past time;
and that together
we are enjoying it all.
And so I thank you,
Great Awareness
in which I also live,
for Calla Lillies
and Birds
and Hollyhocks… Continue reading
December 9, 2016
El poema, UN BUEN DÍA PARA MORIR, en Español
A Good Day To Die
Copyright © 2016 by Alice Walker
the inner Standing Rock
There comes a time in life
when we realize it is okay to die.
Right now, like this, in this moment.
It is not suicidal this thought
but comes rather from a sense
of … Continue reading
Loving Oakland
Copyright © 2016 by Alice Walker
If gentrifiers do not despoil it
which means getting rid of poor
and black and people of color
people
Oakland can be what it has been
for a long time: an urban Paradise.
It is a place where
the young blonde woman
crossing the street in front of your car
would look like a threat
to… Continue reading
Imagine
©2015 by Alice Walker
We can only imagine
What these two-
Francis and Fidel-
Really had to say
To each other.
The Pope wondering
Who really is the Holy Father here,
Since everything he’s
Preaching as holy
Fidel has already
Fulfilled.
Fidel
Seeing humor
In the Argentine’s unmistakable
Italian roots
And thinking pointedly
But not saying
Politely,
Like the good Jesuit
And Revolutionary he… Continue reading
Let us eat tanks
Refugees
©2015 by Alice Walker
They would not be running to us
If we were not chasing them
With the guns and bombs and rockets we sold
To crazy people:
Out of their houses
Out of their schools
Out of their mosques,
Churches,
Synagogues
Away from their favorite
Prayer trees.
You are guilty America
Of arming the world:
If you could,… Continue reading