Just go away quietlyAh, but no. It will not be quiet. Dignified and firm, that's the way to go.
We expected no protest from you in the coffin.
We have graced you with our presence.
Quietly, just go away.
Wednesday, February 08, 2006
Wednesday Poem: Waking the Dead
In honor of Coretta Scott King's funeral, a poem and meditation on funerals and politics.
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5 comments:
Ok, you can go dignified and firm. If I'm around, I'll even wear black for you, if that's what you want. Me? I'm planning on something a bit more Irish, political and celebratory. Dress code will be strictly colorful. Each to their own, and their family's own, to honor their lives as they lived them, by no one's standards but their own.
Oh, I don't care what the funeral looks like: I'll be dead, after all. But if politics isn't discussed, history explained and songs sung, I admit that I'll be a little disappointed.
There's a whole lot of complaining running around the right-blogosphere about the "political" statements (by which they mean political statements they don't agree with, of course) made at the funeral, which they felt detracted from the dignity of the proceedings. I think it's an attempt to confine the struggle for rights and social improvement to something that's "done and past" not present and alive. They'd be happy if the civil rights era died with C.S.King....
Some how, all of the hub-bub makes me want to quote Dylan Thomas instead. I'd like to think that CSK do did not go gently in life, and so would choose not to do so in death.
Pooh,
You're right, but if you read Joe Ivory Mattingly's full poem and commentary, it's entirely clear that he's being ironic, taking on the voice of the conservative silencers.
I should go back and actually read the Dylan Thomas again; it's been years, but everytime I hear it quoted it just sounds so pointless. Sorry; like I said, it's been a while.
Lol, that's what I get for commenting without clikcing through. I am an idiot...
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