courage (12) rachel mccrum
In these troubled times, we asked a number of authors we admire what ‘courage’ means to them. In the coming weeks, you can read their answers here, in the form of a poem, a memory, an anecdote or a more philosophical reflection.
Where It Lives
The awkward heretic. The sober kiss. A small fearful light, through it lives
our hope of ourselves. The first to strip for the October river, laughing blue. It lives.
The first opening of the boundary fence. The first child to dare the unlit path.
The known ordeal, the detour from the habit of what we do. It lives
curled somewhere beneath the stomach. The sticking place. Nowhere cruelty or spite
writhe round, no sniper’s bullet here. A generosity unwitnessed. Tightly screw it. Lives
open before it. It curls on the chest at 2 a.m. You’ll know its weight. Its account only
of itself. Once I was. The memory set at the bottom of the cool stream, in the wood it lives
where fireflies flicker away shame, where the burnt retina fades. The thought for another,
the stone set down, refused, when all around ready themselves to. It lives
daunted and still stepping out. The one who walks away from the herd. Let me not fail.
Honour your living gods. Trespass today in the name of courage. With you, it lives.
Rachel McCrum is a poet and performer. Originally from Northern Ireland, she now lives in Montreal. Her first collection is The First Blast to Awaken Women Degenerate (2018).
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