Don't be bitter - poem
Dates: 1/21/05,4:08 PM through 1/24/05,1:50 PM (3 postings)
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Don't be bitter - poem
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FROM: Candice Michalik <[removed]@yahoo.com>
REC'D: 1/21/05, 4:08 PM
=====
Candice Michalik
Reference Librarian
Lynchburg Public Library
Lynchburg, VA
[removed]@yahoo.com
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FROM: "Sara Salak" <[removed]@mail.mpl.lib.oh.us>
REC'D: 1/24/05, 10:57 AM
Book Title:The Collected Poems of Sterling A. Brown (published 1980)
Author: Sterling Allen Brown (1901-1989)
Poem Title: Bitter Fruit of the Tree
They said to my grandmother: "Please do not be bitter,"
When they sold her first-born and let the second die,
When they drove her husband till he took to the swamplands,
And brought him home bloody and beaten at last.
They told her, "It is better you should not be bitter,
Some must work and suffer so that we, who must, can live,
Forgiving is noble, you must not be heathen bitter;
These are your orders: you are not to be bitter."
And they left her shack for their porticoed house.
They said to my father: "Please do not be bitter,"
When he ploughed and planted a crop not his,
When he weatherstripped a house that he could not enter,
And stored away a harvest he could not enjoy.
They answered his questions: "It does not concern you,
It is not for you to know, it is past your understanding,
All you need know is: you must not be bitter."
Sara Salak
Subject: Don't be bitter - poem
From: "Candice Michalik" <[removed]@yahoo.com>
Date: Fri, 21 Jan 2005 13:31:06 -0800 (PST)
Patron is looking for a poem she saw. She doesn't
know author or title. It was rather long and each
verse ended with the refrain "don't be bitter." She
thinks it was in an anthology and that it may have
been on the subject of slavery. Does this ring a bell
with anyone? I checked our index of last lines
(hoping that "don't be bitter" may have been the last
line) but had no luck. Also did a few Internet
searches which proved fruitless.
=====
Candice Michalik
Reference Librarian
Lynchburg Public Library
Lynchburg, VA
[removed]@yahoo.com
FROM: Candice Michalik <[removed]@yahoo.com>
REC'D: 1/24/05, 1:50 PM
That's it! And I did a bit of further research on the
poet and found that he taught for a while at Virginia
Seminary and College here in Lynchburg! The patron is
so happy that we found this for her, but I told her
the credit is due to Fiction_L.
=====
Candice Michalik
Reference Librarian
Lynchburg Public Library
Lynchburg, VA
[removed]@yahoo.com
__________________________________
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