Thinking about "Your Village"

17 February 2017: "I kind of thought it was about the illusion of separated suffering." --student in my ENGL 301 class, sharing an idea about Elana Bell's poem "Your Village" that kind of knocked my socks off. We were talking about how one could construct a New Critical or a Reader Response interpretation and I was stumbling through an extemporaneous "universal human theme" for the New Critical perspective. And then my student came up with this. Love it.

For the record, I've blogged about this poem before. I wish it weren't still so relevant, but simultaneously, I sure am glad it exists.

"Your Village"

Grateful to the Poetry Off the Shelf Podcast for introducing me to this poem. So perfect for these challenging times.

"Your Village"
Elana Bell

Once in a village that is burning
      because a village is always somewhere burning

And if you do not look because it is not your village
      it is still your village

In that village is a hollow child
      You drown when he looks at you with his black, black eyes

And if you do not cry because he is not your child
      he is still your child

All the animals that could run away have run away
      The trapped ones make an orchestra of their hunger

The houses are ruin      Nothing grows in the garden
      The grandfather’s grave is there      A small stone

under the shade of a charred oak      Who will brush off the dead
      leaves      Who will call his name for morning prayer

Where will they — the ones who slept in this house and ate from this dirt — ?