The Giver (for Berdis) by James
Baldwin
If the hope of giving
is to love the living,
the giver risks madness
in the act of giving.
Some such lesson I seemed to see
in the faces that surrounded me.
Needy and blind, unhopeful,
unlifted.
what gift would give them the
gift to be gifted?
The giver is no less adrift
than those who are clamouring for
the gift.
If they cannot claim it, if it is
not there,
if their empty fingers beat the
empty air
and the giver goes down on his
knees in prayer
knows that all of his giving has
been for naught
and that nothing was ever what he
thought
and turns in his guilty bed to
stare
at the starving multitudes
standing there
and rises from bed to curse at
heaven,
he must yet understand that to
whom much is given
much will be taken, and justly
so:
I cannot tell how much I owe.
No comments:
Post a Comment