Vox Populi
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Elsa Gidlow: Despair
I can laugh now. Have you not heard my laughter? It leads the winds: They come tumbling and bubbling after. I have learned to laugh. I have learned to laugh with my spirit And with my soul. Listen. Do you not hear it? I shall quench the world. I shall sear the stars with my laughter; Shrivel the moon and the sun And make new ones after. For life’s skeleton I shall make flesh from desires; Then of my mounting laughter Build it a temple with mocking spires. I shall laugh to heaven. I shall laugh below hell and above. I shall laugh forever. It was laughter God died of.
Public Domain.
From On a Grey Thread (Will Ransom, 1923) by 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.
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I love all of it. Don’t believe I have seen her work before.
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That was my favorite stanza as well, Barbara!
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I love this poem, but I want to leave off the last line!
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Interesting, Kim. Your version is a completely different poem.
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There is a reason I’m not the poetry editor!
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Kim, your editing of my novels has changed my life.
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