Split This Rock Poem, Camille Dungy!

Split This Rock  Poem of the Week -  Camille Dungy                                                                  Arthritis is one thing, the hurting another .............................for Adrienne Rich in 2006      The poet's hands degenerate until her cup is too heavy. You are not required to understand. This is not the year for understanding. This is the year of burning women in schoolyards and raided homes, of tarped bodies on runways and in......restaurants. The architecture of the poet's hands has turned upon itself. This is not the year for palliatives. It is not the year for......knowing what to do. This is the year the planet grew smaller and no country would consent to its defeat. The poet's cup is filled too full, a weight she cannot carry from the table to her mouth, her lips, her tongue. The poet's hands are congenitally spoiled. This is not one thing standing for another. Listen, this year three ancient cities met their ruin, maybe......more, and many profited, but this is not news for the readers here. Should I speak indirectly? I am not the poet. Those are not my hands. This is the year of deportations and mothers bereaved of all of their sons. The year of third and fourth tours, of cutting-edge weaponry and old-fashioned guns. Last year was no better, and this year only lays the......groundwork for the years that are to come. Listen, this is a year like no......other. This is the year the doctors struck for want of aid and schoolchildren were sent home in the morning and lights and gas were unreliable and, harvesters suspect, fruit had no recourse but rot. Many are dying for want of a cure, and the poet is patient and her hands cause the least of her pain.           -Camille T. Dungy       From Smith Blue (Southern Illinois University Press, 2011)      Used by permission. Camille T. Dungy is the author of Smith Blue and two other collections and has edited three anthologies. Her honors include the 2011 American Book Award, two Northern California Book Awards, an NEA and two NAACP Image Award nominations. She is a professor in the Creative Writing Department at San Francisco State University.www.camilledungy.com   Please feel free to forward Split This Rock Poem of theWeek widely. We just ask you to include all of theinformation in this email, including this request. Thanks! If you are interested in reading past poems of the week, feel free to visit the blog archive.     Split This Rock www.splitthisrock.org info@splitthisrock.org 202-787-5210