Inspired: Alice Walker’s Forgiveness

Recently a friend gave me a book of Alice Walker’s poetry. Here is what I know about Alice Walker:

1. She wrote The Color Purple.
2. She’s a fan of Motherpeace tarot cards.

For those two reasons alone I love Alice Walker, but I’d never read her poetry. The other day, making my tea, I opened the book (Horses Make a Landscape Look More Beautiful) to read, and here is what I found in the section where the author usually dedicates the book to the spouse, parents, kids, etc.

I was blown away by the power of these words, and especially by her capacity to see a most difficult situation from such a complex point of view:

for two who
slipped away
almost entirely:
my “part” Cherokee
great-grandmother
Tallulah
(Grandmama Lula)
on my mother’s side
about whom
only one
agreed-upon
thing
is known:
her hair was so long
she could sit on it;

and my white (Anglo-Irish?)
great-great-grandfather
on my father’s side;
nameless
(Walker, perhaps?),
whose only remembered act
is that he raped
a child:
my great-great-grandmother,
who bore his son,
my great-grandfather,
when she was eleven.

Rest in peace.
The meaning of your lives
is still
unfolding.

Rest in peace.
In me
the meaning of your lives
is still
unfolding.

Rest in peace, in me.
The meaning of your lives
is still
unfolding.

Rest. In me
the meaning of your lives
is still
unfolding.

Rest. In peace
in me
the meaning
of our lives
is still
unfolding.

Rest.

– Alice Walker

May we all have such an ability to accept those parts of ourselves that cause us pain!

Have a peaceful Sunday . . .

© Amy Daniewicz