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The Divine in Us All

mdr338

Grace Paley


Responsibility


It is the responsibility of society to let the poet be a poet

It is the responsibility of the poet to be a woman

It is the responsibility of the poet to stand on street corners

giving out poems and beautifully written leaflets

also leaflets you can hardly bear to look at

because of the screaming rhetoric

It is the responsibility of the poet to be lazy

to hang out and prophesy

It is the responsibility of the poet not to pay war taxes

It is the responsibility of the poet to go in and out of ivory

towers and two-room apartments on Avenue C

and buckwheat fields and army camps

It is the responsibility of the male poet to be a woman

It is the responsibility of the female poet to be a woman

It is the poet's responsibility to speak truth to power as the

Quakers say

It is the poet's responsibility to learn the truth from the

powerless

It is the responsibility of the poet to say many times: there is no

freedom without justice and this means economic

justice and love justice

It is the responsibility of the poet to sing this in all the original

and traditional tunes of singing and telling poems

It is the responsibility of the poet to listen to gossip and pass it

on in the way storytellers decant the story of life

There is no freedom without fear and bravery there is no

freedom unless

earth and air and water continue and children

also continue

It is the responsibility of the poet to be a woman to keep an eye on

this world and cry out like Cassandra, but be

listened to this time.


by Grace Paley


As I age it becomes clear that what I have battled all my life is my own antipathy to my masculinity. The source of both my narcissism and self-loathing are bound by my masculine self. Perhaps I am finally achieving a balance where I can now understand that my self esteem is dependent upon my embrace of the divine feminine within. 


There is a beautiful resonance when the words “woman” and “moment” are paired together. And now their pairing is most timely and indeed appropriate for our place in history. If ever there was a time when I have been able to see through the mask of masculinity and see the better parts of that noble spirit, it is now. And it is the feminine part of my nature promoting that view. 


Life bombards me with contradictory messages all day long. At this moment I can celebrate paradox as I suffer those who are slow to enlightenment. This is the pain of being alive and being an artist. Seeing things that others do not see and working to lift veils and illuminate possibilities. 


Grace Paley is from the Bronx. Her words in this poem have inspired me to study her more closely.

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This site is about sharing my work to promote community. Eyes may roll and lips smile, but we have seen our World Wide Web utilized for worse. I wish to add a voice which counters negativity and division without toxic positivity. From my writing to my photography, to my songs, I offer all who enter here a provocative solace and a stimulating peace.

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