Roots
O heavily weighing earth! O grim travail
In sunless silence with no hope of light!
O impotent wine! O bracken-food of pain!
I accept you all. I accept the timeless blight
Of crawling like a worm with unclean things,
Of being forever a yearning voiceless root
Bedded in this unwarmed oblivion
So that the great sun mellow my ultimate fruit.
Credit
From On a Grey Thread (Will Ransom, 1923) by Elsa Gidlow. This poem is in the public domain.
Author
Elsa Gidlow
Elsa Gidlow, born on December 29, 1898, was a poet and philosopher. Her book, On a Grey Thread (Will Ransom, 1923), is believed by historians to be the first collection of openly lesbian love poetry published in North America.
Date Published
01/01/1923