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Commentary--Maggie Anderson's "Sonnet for Her Labor" has stuck with me since I first read it years ago in the anthology For a Living, edited by Nicholas Coles and Peter Oresick (1995). For me, the sonnet speaks to the poignant need for acknowledging those who make our lives better. While I don't doubt Uncle Ed and Uncle Craig appreciated Aunt Nita's endless work, they apparently took it for granted. They never said thank you. BTW: Galluses are suspenders.
Sonnet for Her Labor by Maggie Anderson My Aunt Nita's kitchen was immaculate and dark, and she was always bending to the sink below the window where the shadows off the bulk of Laurel Mountain rose up to the brink of all the sky she saw from there. She clattered pots on countertops wiped clean of coal dust, fixed three meals a day, fried meat, mixed batter for buckwheat cakes, hauled water, in what seemed lust for labor. One March evening, after cleaning, she lay down to rest and died. I can see Uncle Ed, his fingers twined at this plate for the blessing; my uncle Craig leaning back, silent in red galluses. No one said a word to her. All that food and cleanliness. No one ever told her it was good. Commentary--"How many a man has dated a new era in his life from the reading of a book," wrote Henry David Thoreau in 1854. Just such a moment occurred for me in the mid-90s when I came upon Marvin Weisbord's Productive Workplaces, a mix of history, biography, and practical guidance about the field of organization development. PW led me back to graduate school, a new career in global health, and fresh approaches to creating more human, productive, and resilient organizations. Book, Ode Richard Wilkinson Habent sua fata libelli [Every book has its destiny] --Terentius Maurus, 2nd century CE Discovering my true path began with a book A mentor unknown to me sharing his wonder a message tossed overboard with a map to magical lands His impulse to write refined at the feet of many masters First draft, second… finding a publisher, the never-ending quest the editor, the arguments His passion persistent persuasive propulsive Involve everyone, he wrote, in small steps and large shape together a world of dignity meaning community The book shakes me awake my former self a ghost
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