Alice Walker Puns

Expect Nothing
by Alice Walker

Expect nothing. Live frugally
On surprise.
Become a stranger
To need of pity
Or, if compassion be freely
Given out
Take only enough
Stop short of urge to plead
Then purge away the need.

Wish for nothing larger
Than your own small heart
Or greater than a star;
Tame wild disappointment
With caress unmoved and cold
Make of it a parka
For your soul.

Discover the reason why
So tiny human giant
Exists at all
So scared unwise
But expect nothing. Live frugally
By surprise.

I love a man who is not worth my love. Did this happen to your mother?
Did your grandmother wake up for no good reason in the middle of the night?
I thought love could be controlled. It cannot.
Only behavior can be controlled. By biting your tongue purple rather than speak. Mauling your lips. Obliterating his number too thoroughly to be able to phone.
Love has made me sick.

Did your sister throw up a lot? Did your cousin complain of a painful knot in her back?
Did your aunt always seem to have something else troubling her mind?
I thought love would adapt itself to my needs. But need grow too fast;
They come up like weeds. Through cracks in the conversation. Through silences in the dark. Through everything you thought was concrete.
Such needful love has to be chopped out
or forced to wilt back, poisoned
By disapproval from its own soil.
This is bad news, for the conservationist.

My hand shakes before this killing. My stomach sits jumpy in my chest.
My chest is the Grand Canyon sprawled and empty over the world.
Who ever he is, he is not worth all this.

And I will never unclench my teeth long enough to tell him so…

Dont peek

Iron Fist season 2 is my least favorite show out of the Netflix Marvel shows.

The antagonist's actions make zero sense. The whole transfer of the Iron Fist as the season wide central conflict is meh. They also ruined two characters I liked in the first season, Davos and Joy, and made them sociopathic madmen. Joy even more so than Davos. Davos hates NYC. The only reason he was there was to get the Iron Fist. Once he got it, there is no reason for him to stay. Why doesn't he go someplace that he considers worthy of his and his newly acquired Iron Fist protection? He despises the city. Even according to his newly nonsensical psyche he would be better off protecting some monks in Tibet.

Joy is even worse. She has no reason to hate Danny and they manufactured it out of thin air. When she was a delicate balance between morally questionable and kind in the first season. Now she's a completely deranged lunatic who went out of her way just to screw Danny over, For no reason at all. The show tries to portray her as this calculating business woman. But the second Davos gets his Iron Fist, Joy is afraid of him and doesn't really know what to do so she buys a new door as if this will help. It's like... You're supposed to be smart. How did you not see this coming? You helped this guy become a serious threat to you for no other reason than to spite Danny.

You took this power from someone you know will never hurt you and gave it to someone else who you don't know at all. And now you surprised he might be dangerous? What was your contingency plan for this?

Anyway, the most the only interesting part of this season in my opinion is Mary Walker. She adds dimension and depth to the season that the main plot thread lacks. Her multiple personality disorder is a very intriguing aspect and introduces organic conflict between Walker and Mary and between her and the other characters. Alice's portrayal of this character is really enjoyable to watch. Maybe it's because she's usually type cast as the pretty love interest so it's something different but out of the other shows, badass female characters who supposed to be intimidating (Electra, Colleen, Misty, Jessica Jones etc) Walker was the most convincing in my opinion. She legitimately looks imposing and intimidating. And at the same time, Mary looks and feels adorable and loving.

And as an audience member, I felt far more invested in what happens to Mary and Walker than the main characters. I cared more about Mary not

We have to live differently

or we will die in the same

old ways.

Therefore I call on all Grand Mothers everywhere on the planet to rise and take your place in the leadership of the world

Come out of the kitchen out of the fields out of the beauty parlors out of the television

Step forward & assume the role for which you were created: To lead humanity to health, happiness & sanity.

I call on all the Grand Mothers of Earth & every person who possesses the Grand Mother spirit of respect for life & protection of the young to rise & lead.

The life of our species depends on it.

& I call on all men of Earth to gracefully and gratefully

stand aside & let them (let us) do so.

—Alice Walker

Because women are expected to keep silent about

Their close escapes I will not keep silent

And if I am destroyed (naked tree!) someone will please

Mark the spot

Where I fall and know I could not live silent in my own lies

Hearing their “how nice she is!”

Whose adoration of the retouched image I so despise.

No. I am finished with living

For what my mother believes

For what my brother and father defend

For what my lover elevates

For what my sister, blushing, denies or rushes To embrace

I find my own

small person

a standing self

against the world

an equality of wills

I finally understand.

Besides:

My struggle was always against

An inner darkness: I carry within myself

the only known keys

to my death-to unlock life, or close it shut

forever. A woman who loves wood grains, the color yellow and the sun, I am happy to fight

all outside murderers

as I see I must.

My desire

is always the same; wherever Life

deposits me:

I want to stick my toe

& soon my whole body

into the water.

I want to shake out a fat broom

& sweep dried leaves

bruised blossoms

dead insects

& dust.

I want to grow

something.

It seems impossible that desire

can sometimes transform into devotion;

but this has happened.

And that is how I’ve survived:

how the hole

I carefully tended

in the garden of my heart

grew a heart

to fill it.

— Alice Walker

> My desire
is always the same; wherever Life
deposits me:
I want to stick my toe
& soon my whole body
into the water.
I want to shake out a fat broom
& sweep dried leaves
bruised blossoms
dead insects
& dust.
I want to grow
something.
It seems impossible that desire
can sometimes transform into devotion;
but this has happened.
And that is how I've survived:
how the hole
I carefully tended
in the garden of my heart
grew a heart
to fill it. \

I ran across the above poem by Alice Walker while I was searching for romantic-ish, nature-ish poetry for a wedding vow reading, and thought it would be enjoyed here :)

(As a side note, if anyone has any recommendations for nature-based poetry appropriate for a wedding vow, I'm all ears!)