Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, BLUES FOR THE OLD REVOLUTIONARY WOMAN, by THOMAS MCGRATH


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

BLUES FOR THE OLD REVOLUTIONARY WOMAN, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: A tick of time that stones the heads of kings
Last Line: Points toward the indies of our mortal wish
Subject(s): Politics & Government; Socialism; Women


A tick of time that stones the heads of kings
And drops its pennies on a thousand eyes
Unreels the gaudy shroud of history
And transmutes all statistics into pain.

What is simple virtue can never be denied,
Explained, or cancelled. Still, it is not
Enough to love a world that must be changed.
This was the earliest thing they learned.

Neither Weehawken Ferry nor a flower,
The world was love and work -- we could become
Human. Across the cruel geography
Of strike and struggle, hitch-hiking, riding freights

They sought the boundaries of that possible world
Where statistical death can never cancel dream
And history is humanized. Their blazoning voyage
Points toward the Indies of our mortal wish.


Used with the permission of Copper Canyon Press, P.O. Box 271, Port Townsend, WA
98368-0271, www.cc.press.org




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