A Positive A Day #1: We Were Never Meant To Survive (oh the irony)

Audre Lorde. "A Carribbean-American writer, radical feminist, womanist, lesbian and a civil rights activist" according to Wikipedia. Sounds like an incredibly controversial, marmite-type, woman, right? You will either fall in love with her, or categorically hate her.

I came across Lorde's collection of poetry, Black Unicorn, in one of my modules studying English at university. It's safe to say I have never been a lover of poetry, for some strange reason linking to primary school, and paired with Lorde's impenetrable opinions, I expected to find this collection a chore to read. However, I have been genuinely inspired by Lorde's poetry and never have I been more happy for my initial judgement to be proved wrong! Two poems which really struck me were "Power" and "A Litany For Survival". The former being the reason I am writing this post. 



So, if you haven't had the pleasure of reading this poem before, find it here (the first poem). I urge you to read and not ignore it, it's seriously good.

This poem really speaks to me, and I think to everyone, as we are always "standing upon the constant edge of decision". The human condition is haunted by the choices we make, or don't make, and whether it was the right decision to make those choices. If we have love, "we are afraid love will vanish", and when we don't have love, we are afraid it will never come back. We are constantly concerned with the future and our past, "looking inward and outward", never looking at the present. I think Lorde expresses it beautifully when she says "we were never meant to survive". Terrifying, but true. Humanity wasn't meant to stay for the long-haul. We are just a blip in time (starting to get deep here). So why be so worried with the past and future, just make the most of right now, and the past and future will fall into place. 

Whether that is what Lorde meant when she wrote the poem, I don't know. But the message I received from it has made me think in a brighter, more positive way. I know there are hundreds of inspirational quotes out there spreading the same message, but I feel Lorde gets to the core of the human condition, the real problems of the human mind. This enforces her message powerfully and beautifully. There is so much to say about this poem and the messages it holds, however the point of this post was not to analyse- I do enough of that at university... The point was to share something that made me happy today. That made me feel positive, and want to live my life in a more pro-active, optimistic light. 

So thank you Audre, you made me enjoy poetry enough to write about it. That really is an achievement!!