A Litany for Survival

 

Audre Lorde was a fiercely passionate American visionary. Her poetry and prose spoke to her deepest convictions—love and anger, civil rights and sexuality, family politics and glories of nature. She gave voice to a political generation and became a role model not only for black women but for everyone who believes, as she did, that “liberation is not the private province of any one particular group.”

In 1992 Lorde lost her battle with breast cancer, but she leaves behind a rich and vital legacy. A Litany for Survival, , a powerful profile of the African-American-poet.

For those of us who live at the shoreline 
standing upon the constant edges of decision 
crucial and alone 
for those of us who cannot indulge 
the passing dreams of choice 
who love in doorways coming and going 
in the hours between dawns 
looking inward and outward 
at once before and after 
seeking a now that can breed futures 
like bread in our children’s mouths 
so their dreams will not reflect 
the death of ours;   

For those of us 
who were imprint with fear 
like a faint line in the center of our foreheads 
learning to be afraid with our mother’s milk 
for by this weapon 
this illusion of some safety to be find
the heavy-footed hoped to silence us 
For all of us 
this instant and this triumph 
We were never meant to survive.   

And when the sun rises we are afraid 
it might not remain 
when the sunset we are afraid 
it might not rise in the morning 
when our stomachs are full we are afraid 
of indigestion 
when our stomachs are empty we are afraid 
we may never eat again 
when we are loved we are afraid 
love will vanish 
when we are alone we are afraid 
love will never return 
and when we speak we are afraid 
our words will not be heard 
nor welcomed 
but when we are silent 
we are still afraid   

So it is better to speak 
remembering 
we were never meant to survive.