The Sympathizers

By Josephine Miles 1911–1985 Josephine Miles

To this man, to his boned shoulders

Came the descent of pain.

All kinds,

Cruel, blind, dear, horrid, hallowed,

Rained, again, again.

To this small white blind boned face,

Wherever it was,

Descended

The blows of pain, it took as it were blinded,

As it were made for this.

We were there. We uneasy

Did not know if it were.

Knew neither

The reason nor the man nor whether

To share, or to beware.

Josephine Miles, “The Sympathizers” from Collected Poems. Copyright � 1983 by Josephine Miles. Reprinted with the permission of the University of Illinois Press.

Source: Collected Poems 1930-83 (1983)

Biography

Lifelong California resident Josephine Miles distinguished herself as an educator, spending her entire academic career at the University of California, Berkeley, where she was the first woman to be tenured in the English department. She is remembered as the editor of anthologies and critical texts, as an author of books on poetic style and language, and as an award-winning poet who produced over a dozen books of poems. Her . . .

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