Those Winter Sundays
Sundays too my father got up early
and put his clothes on in the blueblack cold,
then with cracked hands that ached
from labor in the weekday weather made
banked fires blaze. No one ever thanked him.
I’d wake and hear the cold splintering, breaking.
When the rooms were warm, he’d call,
and slowly I would rise and dress,
fearing the chronic angers of that house,
Speaking indifferently to him,
who had driven out the cold
and polished my good shoes as well.
What did I know, what did I know
of love’s austere and lonely offices?
—Robert Hayden
Robert Hayden was an American poet born in Detroit in 1913 and known for his clear, thoughtful poems about Black history, family, and moral struggle; he died on February 25, 1980. His best-known books include A Ballad of Remembrance, Words in the Mourning Time, and Angle of Ascent. He was the first African American Poet Laureate of the United States, appointed in 1976.
Sue Ellen Thompson is the author of six books of poetry—most recently SEA NETTLES: NEW & SELECTED POEMS. She has taught at Middlebury College, Binghamton University, Wesleyan University, Central Connecticut State University, and the University of Delaware. A resident of Oxford, MD for the past 18 years, she mentors adult poets and teaches workshops for The Writer’s Center in Bethesda. In 2010, the Maryland Library Association awarded her its prestigious Maryland Author Award.
Francine L Ringold says
Oh, how I love this poem of Hayden’s. I thank you for reminding me of it. And Sue Ellen Thompson was once a winner of the Nimrod International Journal’s major award. I edited that Journal for 48 years. So it all comes together in the winter of our lives.