Testament
child,
in the august of your life
you come barefoot to me
the blisters of events
having worn through to the
soles of your shoes.
it is not the time
this is not the time
there is no such time
to tell you
that some pains ease away
on the ebb & toll of
themselves.
there is no such dream that
can not fail, nor is hope our
only conquest.
we can stand boldly in burdening places (like earth here)
in our blunderings, our bloomings
our palms, flattened upward or pressed,
an unyielding down.
Carolyn M. Rodgers, “Testament” from The Heart As Ever Green (Garden City: Anchor Press/Doubleday, 1978). Copyright © 1978 by Carolyn M. Rodgers.
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Poet Carolyn M. Rodgers 1941–2010
POET’S REGION U.S., Midwestern
Subjects Living, Parenthood, Disappointment & Failure
Poem Categorization
SUBJECT Living, Parenthood, Disappointment & Failure
POET’S REGION U.S., Midwestern
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