It has been awhile since I sat down to read poetry – even longer since I have written any – and I had forgotten how much I enjoy the twist of phrase and the mental pictures a few words can create.  The slight alteration to the usage of common words can add a provocative twist to the meaning of ordinary everyday words and cause them to draw pictures in my mind of a slightly different hue.  I especially enjoyed the following poem by Gwendolyn Brooks (1917 -2000).

Speech to the Young.  Speech to the Progress-Toward

"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.” (398)

Gwendolyn was born the same year as my mother, and writes to the young children, “the harmony-hushers” as she calls them.  Whilst reading her words, I suddenly hear echoes of noisy children at play and the mid-night cries of certain small “self-soilers” who roused me from my sleep.

“Even if you are not ready for day it cannot always be night” reminds us all that morning often comes before we are ready for it and so too those days link together into years that speed by far too quickly.  If one is too busy looking only toward the goal, one can miss the journey.  “Live in the along.”  Live in the moment.  Enjoy the journey.  Do not be in a hurry for the end of the song, the end of childhood, for too soon after follow the days of old age.  Looking beyond my first responses to the poem, I think the author is also referring to progress.  To paraphrase the meanings I see in the poem:  Enjoy life and embrace progress.

Works cited

Kennedy, X.J. and Dana Gioia, eds.  Backpack Literature: An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, Drama, and Writing.  4^th ed.  Boston: Pearson, 2012. 398. Print.