January 1, 2025
THE PLACE IN THE WAYS by Muriel Rukeyser
THE PLACE IN THE WAYS
Having come to this place
I set out once again
on the dark and marvelous way
from where I began:
belief in the love of the world,
woman, spirit, and man.
Having failed in all things
I enter a new age
seeing the old ways as toys,
the houses of a stage
painted and long forgot;
and I find love and rage.
Rage for the world as it is
but for what it may be
more love now than last year
and always less self-pity
since I know in a clearer light
the strength of the mystery.
And at this place in the ways
I wait for song.
My poem-hand still, on the paper,
all night long.
Poems in throat and hand, asleep,
and my storm beating strong!
-MURIEL RUKEYSER
from The Green Wave by M. Rukeyser (1948)
Invitation: “… the dark and marvelous way …”
We found this poem in - Anything We Love Can Be Saved, Preface by Alice Walker
“Muriel Rukeyser was an American poet and political activist, best known for her poems about equality, feminism, social justice, and Judaism. Kenneth Rexroth said that she was the greatest poet of her "exact generation".
One of her most powerful pieces was a group of poems entitled The Book of the Dead (1938), documenting the details of the Hawk's Nest incident, an industrial disaster in which hundreds of miners died of silicosis.
Her poem "To be a Jew in the Twentieth Century" (1944), on the theme of Judaism as a gift, was adopted by the American Reform and Reconstructionist movements for their prayer books, something Rukeyser said "astonished" her, as she had remained distant from Judaism throughout her early life.”
Goodreads - https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/30010.Muriel_Rukeyser
We will meet for the Community Table Monday, January 6th at 4:30 PM ET. Contact us for information HERE.
Join Mardi Tindal and Jean Richardson for their upcoming retreat series beginning in February. More HERE.
Learn More About Circles of Courageous Commons HERE
I am grateful to be introduced to the poetry and insight of Muriel Rukeyser via Alice Walker. For this moment in time, as the start of a new year -- this particularly caught my heart -- "Rage for the world as it is but for what it may be more love now than last year." Indeed, I affirm the necessity of more love now than last year. Love for others, love for myself... love.
As I begin this new year, I listen for Wisdom beckoning me to explore “the dark and marvelous way” calling all of us to wholeness and hope in these times. So grateful to be on this journey with all of you who seek the common good. jmr