The Unlimited Light Of Song
By Tony Brown
Waiting in fear
in this sudden,
moonless dark.
Lying alone all across
the country, some scattered
face down upon stone;
some of us clawing alone
at barn-board floors,
gasping for air;
others huddled
in city doorways,
watching our homes burn,
watching
everything beloved
burn.
Tonight the fight
is at the door
and not of our making.
Tonight we fight back their way,
by the glowing rage
of uncounted flames.
But tomorrow?
Tomorrow, we fight our way,
illuminated
by the unlimited
light of
song.
Le Refus Absurde
By Tony Brown
While reading and fantasizing
about the French Resistance
before dawn,
I come across the term
“le Refus Absurde,” used to describe
those actions early
in the Nazi occupation when,
even though it seemed certain that
the Reich would triumph and
last a thousand years, individuals
would begin to resist even though
they felt the effort was futile. They’d
slash a tire, cut a cable, write
a subversive poem, start
an underground newspaper. Armed
resistance only came later… Many
spoke of moments when le Refus Absurde
crystallized within them, climaxes
of incipient struggle; for some it was seeing friends
beaten or marched away, for others
the look of contempt on the faces
of German soldiers as they marched
into towns like a swarm
of sneering Twitter comments.
Tony Brown lives, writes and fronts the Duende Project in Worcester, Mass.
I like both these poems, but I like the second the most, principally because it touches on a theme/reality that isn’t articulated as often as I think it should be: the idea that, as you found in your reading about the French Resistance during WW2, one model for resistance can be found in how
. . . individuals
would begin to resist even though
they felt the effort was futile. They’d
slash a tire, cut a cable, write
a subversive poem, start
an underground newspaper.
We don’t have to be filled with a sense of immediate or easy victory to participate in organizing against bad government or other forms of exploitation. We merely need to be filled with the knowledge that the act of resisting is in itself a worthwhile end. Thanks. Both of your poems are moving.
Likewise, I love these poems. The ending of the second (“like a swarm
of sneering Twitter comments”) elicited a spastic reaction; I involuntarily stooped from my chair towards my laptop, for a closer read!
“Le Refus Absurde” is today’s lesson. Pops.