Beast
Whenever I do not create
I feel like a beast.
A beast they say
is a being who
through horror
and impoverishment
loses its soul.
Earth
I beg of you
a beast
in the making
to reclaim
creation
as a rolling over
of the soul.
The absolute
willful,
self-assurance
that there is
no lack.
I beg of you
rise again.
Shake the concrete
off your back.
by Alice Walker
from Her Blue Body Everything We Know
Harvest Books, 1991