Refusing Silence

By Tess Gallagher b. 1943 Tess Gallagher

Heartbeat trembling

your kingdom

of leaves

near the ceremony

of water, I never

insisted on you. I admit

I delayed. I was the Empress

of Delay. But it can’t be

put off now. On the sacred branch

of my only voice – I insist.

Insist for us all,

which is the job

of the voice, and especially

of the poet. Else

what am I for, what use

am I if I don’t

insist?

There are messages to send.

Gatherings and songs.

Because we need

to insist. Else what are we

for? What use

are we?

Tess Gallagher, “Refusing Silence” from Amplitude: New and Selected Poems. Copyright © 1987 by Tess Gallagher. Reprinted by permission of Graywolf Press, www.graywolfpress.org

Source: Amplitude: New and Selected Poems (Graywolf Press, 1987)

Biography

Poet, essayist, and short story writer Tess Gallagher was born in 1943 in Port Angeles, Washington, to a logging family. Her early years were marked by the rhythms of seasonal work, as well as the landscape of both the Northwest and the Ozarks, where her grandparents lived. “I don’t know how many children really get to explore vast amounts of territory like that,” she has said in interviews. “It builds something in you.” . . .

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