2021 AT LAST
Dear ALTES
Happy 2021. We are grateful to have MADE IT OUT
of the Worst Year Ever. Here’s Marge Piercy.
The birthday of the world
BY MARGE PIERCY
On the birthday of the world
I begin to contemplate
what I have done and left
undone, but this year
not so much rebuilding
of my perennially damaged
psyche, shoring up eroding
friendships, digging out
stumps of old resentments
that refuse to rot on their own.
No, this year I want to call
myself to task for what
I have done and not done
for peace. How much have
I dared in opposition?
How much have I put
on the line for freedom?
For mine and others?
As these freedoms are pared,
sliced and diced, where
have I spoken out? Who
have I tried to move? In
this holy season, I stand
self-convicted of sloth
in a time when lies choke
the mind and rhetoric
bends reason to slithering
choking pythons. Here
I stand before the gates
opening, the fire dazzling
my eyes, and as I approach
what judges me, I judge
myself. Give me weapons
of minute destruction. Let
my words turn into sparks.
We will be glad to SEE EVERYONE in 2021.
love from your Alte Friends
Most timely! I was introduced to Marge Piercy via a Philosophy class at Smith College in 1976-77.
Woman on The Edge of Time was among the selection of books to be read and provoke our thoughts. It was powerful, illuminating and spoke to the societal webs we seem to never manage to break free of. We ride a pendulum, up toward the light.... rising.... only to miss the crest and slip back with a momentum that wretchedly pushes us toward the opposite extreme.