Dear Fernanda Winthrop and Class V of
The Nightingale-Bamford School:
Thank you for asking me to be a part of the project Lifelines. It’s an honor. I should say the project inspired by Lifelines, I suppose, which was a beautiful gesture to aid needy people and children in Africa. Because your project focuses on the International Rescue Committee to benefit refugee children I chose a poem which I feel speaks to the possibilities of life. It is by my favorite poet, Alice Walker. I think she speaks to the potential transformation we all have inside ourselves. The poem also expresses a hunger for spiritual liberation and a deep love for Life.
A poem of Ms. Walker’s must be included in this collection because she is such an inspiring, heroic figure to people all over the world: a beautiful writer, a political figure, a strong proponent for change. Thank you once again for this opportunity.
Sincerely,
ON STRIPPING BARK FROM MYSELF
(FOR JANE, WHO SAID TREES DIE FROM IT)
because women are expected to keep silent about
their close escapes I will not keep silent
and if I am destroyed (naked tree!) someone will please
mark the spot
where I fall and know I could not live
silent in my own lies
hearing their “how nice she is!”
whose adoration of the retouched image
I so despise.
No. I am finished with living
for what my mother believes
for what my brother and father defend
for what my lover elevates
for what my sister, blushing, denies or rushes
to embrace.
I find my own
small person
a standing self
against the world
an equality of wills
I finally understand.
My struggle was always against
an inner darkness: I carry within myself
the only known keys
to my death — to unlock life, or close it shut
forever. A woman who loves wood grains, the cold yellow
and the sun, I am happy to fight
all outside murderers
as I see I must.
— Alice Walker
