This poem deals with challenging subject matter, to say the least, but I decided to post it today for a couple reasons.
First, dealing directly with subjects we can't speak about freely is one of most important roles poetry can play in our lives.
The caliber of the poet was also an important consideration. This isn't screed, or a rant taking one side or another of a very contentious issue, this is an eloquent outpouring of emotion from a deeply conflicted woman. The poem never tries to "score points" for a particular point of view. Instead, it struggles to work out on paper (or in voice) just what the speaker feels.
It begins conflicted and ends more conflicted after engaging in tortured bouts of self-contradiction and self-condemnation. Brooks makes the words feel like they are being thought out even as they are written down - her style bordering on stream-of-consciousness.
But what are we left with? Why did our poor, tormented narrator write this poem if she doesn't even know how she herself feels? The answer is that she does in fact know how she feels, she makes it clear in her final, sweet stanza. She is filled with love. She is conflicted, confused and regretful, but most of all she is filled with love, and so she wrote this - a love letter to her children that she no longer has.
This poem has been used by both sides of the abortion argument, and understandable so. No matter what camp you consider yourself a member of, the deep love Brooks writes of speaks to us all.
Incidentally, Gwendolyn Brooks herself never underwent abortion. Her writing on this topic shows the deep pathos that she brings to all her poetry.
Although this poem is about abortion it doesn't take sides. Instead it expresses in great eloquence the author's deep uncertainty.
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