Alice Walker

"Be nobody's darling; Be an outcast. Take the contradictions Of your life And wrap around You like a shawl, To parry stones To keep you warm. Watch the people succumb To madness With ample cheer; Let them look askance at you And you askance reply. Be an outcast; Be pleased to walk alone (Uncool) Or line the crowded River beds With other impetuous Fools. Make a merry gathering On the bank Where thousands perished For brave hurt words They said. Be nobody's darling; Be an outcast. Qualified to live Among your dead."

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Source: Alice Walker (2011). “Alice Walker: Collected Poems: Her Blue Body Everything We Know: Earthling Poems 1965-1990”, p.115, Hachette UK

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Alice Walker

Alice Walker

Novelist, Poet

Alice Walker is an American author and activist, best known for her Pulitzer Prize-winning novel 'The Color Purple,' which addresses themes of race, gender, and resilience.

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Alice Walker Novelist, Poet

"To acknowledge our ancestors means we are aware that we did not make ourselves, that the line stretches all the way back, perhaps to God; or to Gods. We remember them because it is an easy thing to forget: that we are not the first to suffer, rebel, fight, love and die. The grace with which we embrace life, in spite of the pain, the sorrow, is always a measure of what has gone before."

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