Classic and Contemporary Poetry: Explained

"Making Love to Concrete" by Audre Lorde is a complex poem that invokes images and symbols to explore the relationship between the individual and the structures that surround them. The poem starts with a vivid scene of a beige Honda leaping a divider on the Willis Avenue Bridge, an event that underscores the tension between human unpredictability and the rigidity of the built environment. The scene serves as an entry point into a larger reflection on the possibilities and limitations of human interaction with 'concrete' structures-literal and metaphorical.

"You cannot make love to concrete," the speaker asserts, suggesting that concrete represents systems and structures that are impassive and unresponsive to human needs or desires. These could be the hard, unyielding laws of society, unchanging attitudes, or any other rigid system that constrains human potential. The phrase "making love" suggests a level of intimacy and reciprocity that is impossible with such inanimate rigidity. Yet, the speaker claims, "if you cannot pretend/concrete needs your loving," then one cannot interact meaningfully with the world's structures. This line indicates the need for a level of self-delusion or creative envisioning to coexist with these systems. The act of 'making love' to concrete is a metaphor for the efforts to humanize what is inherently non-human or to find meaning in what seems meaningless.

"To make love to concrete/you need an indelible feather," the poem continues, introducing a sequence of seemingly disparate images. The "indelible feather" might represent the creative spirit or the power of imagination, the tool we use to inscribe our presence onto the world. We are presented with a flurry of scenes and objects-from "white dresses" and "air raid drills" to "garden-fresh broccoli" and "two dozen dropped eggs"-each suggesting varying degrees of human vulnerability, resilience, and complexity.

The poem moves on to talk about "stone chips that forget you need/to become a light rope a hammer/a repeatable bridge." Here, we see an allusion to the mutability of human needs and desires, contrasting with the permanence of stone or concrete. People need to adapt, to become many things-a rope, a hammer, a bridge-depending on their circumstances. Concrete doesn't adapt; it remains unyielding, requiring humans to fit into its structure rather than the other way around.

The final lines of the poem hover "between forgiving too easily/and never giving at all," suggesting a delicate balance in our engagement with the world and its structures. To interact with an unyielding world, one must be willing to both forgive and assert oneself, to bend and to stand firm. In this light, making love to concrete becomes a metaphor for the complex negotiation required to live within systems while also striving to humanize them or even transform them.

"Making Love to Concrete" offers a dense, layered exploration of the dynamics between individuals and the 'concrete' systems or structures they inhabit. The poem crafts a multifaceted argument about the strategies of resistance, adaptation, and creative envisioning that human beings employ to navigate a world that often seems as unyielding as concrete. With its rich imagery and intricate conceptual framework, the poem stands as a compelling meditation on the struggles and possibilities of human agency.

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