Muriel Rukeyser




What Do I Give You?

What do I give you?    This memory
I cannot give you.    Force of a memory
I cannot give you : it rings my nerves among.
None of these songs
Are made in their images.
Seeds of all memory
Given me give I you
My own self.    Voice of my days
Blessing;    the seed and pain,
Green of the praise of growth.
The sacred body of thirst.