"The Radical" a poem by Waring Cuney
A poem from the public domain
Intro
February is Black History Month. All the public domain poems I’m sharing this month are by black poets.
This Waring Cuney poem reads to me like a cathartic relief valve for hopelessness—especially when that hopelessness is tied to political machinations actively working against our wellbeing. He wrote this during the Harlem Renaissance, when Jim Crow laws sought to control the day-to-day actions and movements of black Americans.
Unfortunately, our current regime wants to return to a strictly hierarchical society with white cis heterosexual capitalist Christian men ahead above the rest of us. Don’t lose hope; that’s what they want.
Go read Cuney’s poets.org bio and more of his poems. Also, if you don’t know the heart-wrenching Nina Simone song “Images,” which uses Cuney’s poem “No Images” as its lyrics, you should.
Cuney’s poem is below, followed by my reading.
💜Miranda📚
The Radical
Men never know
What they are doing.
They always make a muddle
Of their affairs,
They always tie their affairs
Into a knot
They cannot untie.
Then I come in
Uninvited.
They do not ask me in;
I am the radical,
The bomb thrower,
I untie the knot
That they have made,
And they never thank me.