The World Will Follow Joy

Turning Madness into Flowers (New Poems)

Alice Walker

• Publisher: The New Press
• Year: 2013
• ISBN:
  9781595588876
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: Women in Poetry
• Index: Literature

A poetry collection of "playful and crooning lyricism" from the National Book Award– and Pulitzer Prize–winning author of The Color Purple ( Booklist ). In this dazzling new collection, Alice Walker offers over sixty new poems to incite and nurture contemporary activists. Hailed as a "lavishly gifted writer, " Walker imbues her poetry with evocative images, fresh language, anger, forgiveness, and profound wisdom ( The New York Times ). Casting her eye toward history, politics, and nature, as well as to world figures such as Jimmy Carter, Gloria Steinem, and the Dalai Lama, she "distills struggles, crises, and tragedies down to bright, singing lessons in living with awareness and joy" ( Booklist ). By attentively chronicling the conditions of human life today, Walker shows, as ever, her deep compassion, profound spirituality, and necessary political commitments. The poems in The World Will Follow Joy remind us of our human capacity to come together and take action, even in our troubled political times. "Her spirituality, concern for human rights, and almost old-fashioned, determined joyousness run deep and her devoted readers will want to follow her as she turns 'madness into flowers'" ( Library Journal ).

Turning Madness into Flowers #1

If my sorrow were deeper

I’d be, along with you, under

the ocean’s floor;

but today I learn that the oil

that pools beneath the ocean floor

is essence

residue

remains

of all our

relations

all

our ancestors who have died and turned to oil

without our witness

eons ago.

We’ve always belonged to them.

Speaking for you, hanging, weeping, over the water’s edge

as well as for myself.

It is our grief

heavy, relentless,

trudging

us, however resistant,

to the decaying and rotten

bottom of things:

our grief bringing

us home.

***

What It Feels Like

As if I’ve swallowed

A watermelon

And

Sidestepping

My digestive tract

It has lodged

In my heart.

There it lies

Green

& whole

with a luscious

red

heart of its own

daring me

to cut.

***

Before I Leave the Stage

Before I leave the stage

I will sing the only song

I was meant truly to sing.

It is the song

of I AM.

Yes: I am Me

&

You.

WE ARE.

I love Us with every drop

of our blood

every atom of our cells

our waving particles

—undaunted flags of our Being—

neither here nor there.

***

Remember?

Remember

W...