Episode #075 Someone Leans Near - Toni Morrison

This last week, the world mourned the passing of literary titan Toni Morrison. Morrison famously said, "I don't like to have someone call my books 'poetic' because it has the connotation of luxuriating richness. I wanted to restore the language black people spoke to its original power." Morrison did, however, write 5 poems. Connor and Jack Discuss one of them, "Someone Leans Near."

Read all five of Morrison's poems, here: https://believermag.com/five-poems-by-toni-morrison/?fbclid=IwAR1-x9OjSe__E_TJKDAIoI_C2kZrzwMFWvh_fkyWcflIoj0k6YSSYmj378Y

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Someone Leans Near

By: Toni Morrison

Someone leans near

And sees the salt your eyes have shed.

You wait, longing to hear

Words of reason, love or play

To lash or lull you toward the hollow day.

Silence kneads your fear

Of crumbled star-ash sifting down

Clouding the rooms here, here.

You shore up your heart to run. To stay.

But no sign or design marks the narrow way.

Then on your skin a breath caresses

The salt your eyes have shed.

And you remember a call clear, so clear

“You will never die again.”

Once more you know

You will never die again.