A Mark of Resistance - Adrienne Rich

[Larry Robinson]

A Mark of Resistance 


Stone by stone I pile

this cairn of my intention

with the noon's weight on my back,

exposed and vulnerable

across the slanting fields

which I love but cannot save

from floods that are to come;

can only fasten down

with this work of my hands,

these painfully assembled

stones, in the shape of nothing

that has ever existed before.

A pile of stones: an assertion

that this piece of country matters

for large and simple reasons.

A mark of resistance, a sign.

	- Adrienne Rich