I’m sharing a poem today that I’ve loved most of my life. It is one of the first poems I scribbled into my inspiration notebook many moons ago. The poem, “If There Be Sorrow,” was written by Mari Evans (1923-2017), a writer-activist and major figure of the Black Arts Movement of the 1960’s and 1970’s.
I was and am drawn to the wisdom of the short verse, of living a life without regret.
If There Be Sorrow
Mari Evans
If there be sorrow
let it be
for things undone . . .
undreamed
unrealized
unattained
to these add one;
Love withheld . . .
. . . restrained
About the image: This is another photo card from the set designed by my photographer/art journalist friend Diane W (midteacher on swap-bot). I shared a couple earlier this month with William Wordsworth’s “A Psalm of Life,” a poem with a message similar to Evans’.
Pics and Posts 
Chandra, you are the only person I’ve run into who knows Mari Evans’ poetry–although I admit I don’t know much of it. I ran into a poem of hers in the 70s, in an anthology of women’s poetry, and I’m trying to reassemble the title. Something like “To Mother and [insert man’s name].” It was simple, direct, powerful–the kind of poem that had nothing extra, nothing wasted, and could knock you off your chair.
I admit, I haven’t gone looking for people who know her work and I don’t spend a lot of time discussing poets with people I know. But when I first saw it I did pass it around a bit and I wondered, “Why isn’t this woman better known?”
I mean, in addition to the obvious reasons.
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I’ll have to look for that poem. I’ve read so many poems in my lifetime that I can’t keep them all straight. I’m always surprised by how few poets people know, especially someone like Mari Evans whose work spans many decades. How could they not know? It makes the work I do in the classroom all the more critical.
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Found it! The man’s name popped into my head as I was reading your reply, which was enough to let me trace it down: “To Mother and Steve.” https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=H83fdbySIQwC&pg=PA54&dq=to+mother+and+steve+mari+evans&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjbnt7kh43pAhXFoXEKHfNAA8UQ6AEIKDAA#v=onepage&q=to%20mother%20and%20steve%20mari%20evans&f=false
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Ellen, I think I need to make you my research assistant! LOL. How about if I elevate your status to research goddess? I can’t believe you found the poem in an Ebony magazine from 1981! Excellent work! I’ve bookmarked it to read it later today when I can quiet myself a bit. Thank you!
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This is beautiful!!!
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Thank you!
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That is beautiful. I’m going to look her up after this.
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I didn’t find many of her works online–which was a little disappointing.
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LOVE…. love 🙂 I have so enjoyed this month with you Chandra 🙂
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And it’s ending today!!! Thank you for reading along!!!
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I had a copy of “To Mother and Steve” written out from waaay back and it got lost over the years. I couldn’t remember enough of it to do a decent web search (which wasn’t even thought of when I first loved the poem), but recently started searching using fragments I could think of and found it through this! I am so happy to have it again, not just for the beauty of the work itself (it is beautiful despite the agony one feels reading it), but for its ability to take me back to a time in my life when I was going through so many changes and choices. Thank you.
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