EMILY & I ARE ABSOLUTELY DIFFERENT
IN THE DETAILS OF OUR LIVES
by Gwendolyn Brooks
Page 7
I wrote this out as a kind of sauce for the poem, perhaps. In addition to other things I wanted to say on this subject of the young killing themselves is, "You're going to die soon, soon enough." And I wrote here "Soon enough you'll begin to notice the rapid passing of time, especially when you get married and start a family. Certainly those little children are not the same two days in a row." About that time I believe many women become conscious that time really is moving. Suddenly, too, you observe that your little quick- trotting mother begins to wobble and wain. I was at a hotel recently and I sat down for room service and a young waiter came up and he looked rather tense, and I said "Good morning." And he said, "Oh, thank you, thank you." Already life early in the morning had begun to deal with him and he was grateful for just a smile so that is something that we can all do to make life different and bearable. So here is that poem I wrote some years ago, but after seeing that show it took on a whole new meaning. "The Contemplation of Suicide":
One poises, poses at track, or range, or river,And I'm going to close with a children's poem, and it's subtly called "Speech to the Young / Speech to the Progress-Toward." And I'm sure that Emily would have felt this way if she had lived into this most challenging time.
Saying, What is the fact of my life, to what do I tend?--
And is it assured and sweet that I have come, after mazes
and robins, after the foodless swallowings and snatchings
at fog, to this foppish end?
(Knowing that downtown the sluggish shrug their shoul-
ders, slink, talk.)Then, though one can think of no fact, no path, no ground,
Some little thing, remarkless and daily, relates
Its common cliche. One lunges or lags on, prates.--
Too selfish to be nothing while beams break, surf's epi-
leptic, chicken reeks or squalls.
SPEECH TO THE YOUNGI feel we're all little girls and boys in that case. Thank you.
SPEECH TO THE PROGRESS-TOWARD
(Among them Nora and Henry III)Say to them,
say to the down-keepers,
the sun-slappers,
the self-soilers,
the harmony-hushers,
"Even if you are not ready for day
it cannot always be night."
You will be right.
For that is the hard home-run.Live not for battles won.
Live not for the-end-of-the-song.
Live in the along.
