Prospective Immigrants Please Note
--by Adrienne Rich
Either you will
go through this door
or you will not go through.
If you go through
there is always the risk
of remembering your name.
Things look at you doubly
and you must look back
and let them happen.
If you do not go through
it is possible
to live worthily
to maintain your attitudes
to hold your position
to die bravely
but much will blind you,
much will evade you,
at what cost who knows?
The door itself
makes no promises.
It is only a door.
____________
Young me thought that going through the door guaranteed some sort of fulfillment--artistic, spiritual, romantic.
Now I understand why people choose not to go through the door and even think they are quite sensible not to.
It is only a door.
No guarantees.
Also I no longer think I know who does and who does not go through the door, or even where or what the door is.
I know I do not know.
Which is a weight off my shoulders.
________________
Today would have been my mother's 77th birthday.
Did she go through the door or not?
She looks at me doubly,
and I look back and live with what happened.
For some reason (probably because I've considered blogging about it), this poem makes me think of my favorite line from a Star Trek movie. McCoy, in movie #3 (I think), answering the question the Vulcans asked him, before they operated to remove Spock's consciousness from McCoy's: "I choose the danger."
ReplyDeleteGlad you could take some time to blog, and I love how you ended this post.
That's a great tie-in, Deanna, thanks.
ReplyDeleteI remember the scene (yep, #3, The Search for Spock)but had forgotten that great line.
I'd love to read your further thoughts on it.
It's nice to be blogging again (even if temporarily?).
This is a poem for Scully.
ReplyDelete