A Poem Traveled Down My Arm Read online

  risk—

  grow old.

  21

  Kissing

  Your

  Arm

  I kiss

  The

  Mountain.

  Don’t you

  think

  they

  intend

  to incinerate

  the Earth

  who create

  a napalm

  to burn

  our flesh

  even

  under

  water?

  How long

  we

  have slept

  dreaming

  of getting

  everywhere

  some

  where

  faster.

  In our

  lifetime

  no end

  to

  war.

  What do birds

  think

  of

  us?

  Fleeting

  thought

  where

  did

  you

  go?

  Lost

  poem.

  When we die

  the

  ocean

  of

  Life

  closes

  over

  us.

  Do

  not be

  a

  miracle

  of

  affliction

  to

  the

  world.

  Choose

  someone

  to love

  who

  wouldn’t even

  hear

  of it.

  Notice

  ducks.

  Children

  trained

  to

  shoot

  to kill

  themselves:

  We

  the ground

  on

  which

  they

  fall.

  Wear red.

  How to hope

  against

  the evil

  engulfing

  us?

  All around

  our rented

  pole house

  in Paradise

  acid lime

  was laid

  to

  silence

  frogs.

  How can we

  rest

  thinking

  of

  their

  burning

  legs?

  What is

  the balm

  for

  consciousness?

  There is only

  kindness

  lucid, strong

  in the

  moment

  like

  sunlight

  penetrating

  a gloomy

  glade

  The offer

  of empathy

  or tea

  or soup

  or

  bread

  a bed.

  Lack

  of balance

  staggers

  us.

  To fall

  is

  easy.

  Even so,

  falling

  will not

  help.

  No

  gadget

  in all

  Creation

  to

  distract us

  forever

  from

  our

  grief.

  We have seen

  Paradise

  over &

  over

  we have

  lost

  it

  every

  time.

  Is it

  the same

  Paradise

  we

  lose

  so constantly

  in

  ourselves?

  There is

  no

  “Other”

  only

  you—

  at

  war.

  For medicine

  contemplate

  a

  breathing

  leaf:

  faithfulness.

  Now

  we know

  why

  models

  we are

  trained

  to emulate

  look

  like

  skeletons.

  22

  It was not

  Uranium

  who chose

  to be

  our

  enemy.

  Depleted

  She is

  misunderstood

  misused.

  We are left

  trailing

  Her

  footprints

  which

  last

  forever.

  Choose

  one country

  other

  than

  your

  own

  to love.

  Keep a finger

  on

  its

  pulse.

  See

  yourself

  in every

  eye

  you

  fear

  to

  look

  into.

  You live

  there

  and die

  also.

  Stop running.

  Earth

  Mother

  will win

  in the

  end

  absorb

  us casually

  grow

  perfect

  creations

  from

  our

  mistakes.

  Her

  life

  so long

  can

  start

  over

  over

  again

  without

  us.

  But

  can I be

  a flower

  a weed

  waving

  blowing?

  23

  We are

  protected

  by

  nothing

  but

  our

  thoughts.

  In

  the land

  where

  all

  is managed

  the

  opinion

  of

  the wise

  arrives

  by

  accident.

  Destroying

  as it

  builds

  the serpent

  swallows

  its tail.

  The tap

  of

  the hammer

  the

  whine

  of

  the

  bomb.

  Trying

  to

  explain

  in

  this

  Age

  of fragmentation

  our

  thoughts

  disintegrate

  on

  the wind.

  The poem

  means—

  but are they

  good

  shoes?

  Is there

  a

  market

  near

  the

  airport?

  Is that

  the

  celebrity

  the one

  I love

  or

  the one

  who died

  along with all

  her

  dogs

  two

  giraffes?

  Where is

  Michael

  when the lights

  go out?

  Respect

  plutonium.

  24

  There is no end

  Lying in my lover’s arms

  there is a
/>
  smell

  of

  poi

  that

  steadies

  me.

  The luscious

  papaya

  too sweet

  for

  my body

  not for

  its

  own.

  Believe in

  no God

  that

  does not

  believe

  in you.

  Eat coco-

  nuts.

  Do not

  repeat

  everything

  you’ve

  learned.

  You may be called upon

  to lead.

  Don’t be

  fooled

  the

  assaulted

  child

  is

  ours

  always

  was.

  I am not

  so

  easily

  killed

  as

  you

  thought:

  So firmly

  am I

  a part

  of

  you.

  You will

  carry me

  to

  my resting

  place

  I will

  leave

  with

  you.

  Turn to the

  wind

  for

  help.

  Ask it

  to drop

  all radio-

  active

  particles

  while

  embracing

  you.

  There is

  a swift

  horse

  whose name

  is

  Night.

  Ride it

  into

  dreams.

  25

  We must

  dream

  our

  way

  out

  of this.

  Strive

  to remember

  it is not

  normal

  to

  live

  in

  terror

  of

  the water

  in

  your

  glass.

  Friendship

  is

  antidote

  to

  poison.

  Do not

  be

  like

  cows

  grazing

  watching

  the

  butcher.

  If we are true

  to Her

  The Goddess

  will come

  to us.

  She will

  seem

  odd.

  And

  I will go

  on

  blessing

  old

  revolutionaries

  who

  stand

  their

  ground

  small

  countries

  that

  never

  give

  up

  I will go

  on

  believing

  that

  even

  if

  provoked

  it is

  inappropriate

  to

  bomb

  teenagers

  & that

  infants

  are not

  to

  blame

  for fouling

  their

  societies

  I will

  go

  on

  believing

  that

  love

  is

  the future

  that

  I deserve

  Peace

  the future

  whose

  time

  has

  come.

  About the Author

  ALICE WALKER won the Pulitzer Prize and

  the American Book Award for her novel

  The Color Purple, which was preceded by

  The Third Life of Grange Copeland and Meridian.

  Her other bestselling novels include By the Light of

  My Father’s Smile, Possessing the Secret of Joy,

  and The Temple of My Familiar. She is also

  the author of three collections of short stories,

  three collections of essays, six previous volumes of

  poetry, and several children’s books. Her books

  have been translated into more than two dozen

  languages. Born in Eatonton, Georgia,

  Walker now lives in Northern California.

  ALSO BY ALICE WALKER

  FICTION

  The Way Forward Is with a Broken Heart

  By the Light of My Father’s Smile

  Possessing the Secret of Joy

  The Temple of My Familiar

  The Color Purple

  You Can’t Keep a Good Woman Down

  Meridian

  In Love and Trouble: Stories of Black Women

  The Third Life of Grange Copeland

  NONFICTION ON

  Sent by Earth: A Message from the Grandmother Spirit

  Anything We Love Can Be Saved

  The Same River Twice: Honoring the Difficult

  Warrior Marks (with Pratibha Parmar)

  Living by the Word

  In Search of Our Mothers’ Gardens

  POEMS

  Absolute Trust in the Goodness of the Earth

  Her Blue Body Everything We Know

  Horses Make a Landscape Look More Beautiful

  Good Night, Willie Lee, I’ll See You in the Morning

  Revolutionary Petunias and Other Poems

  Once

  COPYRIGHT © 2003 BY ALICE WALKER

  All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright

  Conventions. Published in the United States by Random House,

  an imprint of the Random House Publishing Group, a division of

  Random House, Inc., New York.

  RANDOM HOUSE and colophon are registered

  trademarks of Random House, Inc.

  LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING-IN-PUBLICATION DATA

  Walker, Alice,

  A poem traveled down my arm: poems and drawings / by Alice Walker.

  p. cm.

  I. Title.

  PS3573.A425P64 2003

  81’.54—dc21 2003047070

  Random House website address: www.atrandom.com

  www.randomhouse.com

  eISBN: 978-0-307-43044-1

  v3.0