Poem-a-Day - "If You Knew" by Ruth Muskrat Bronson

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March 7, 2021 

If You Knew


Ruth Muskrat Bronson

If you could know the empty ache of loneliness,
          Masked well behind the calm indifferent face
Of us who pass you by in studied hurriedness,
          Intent upon our way, lest in the little space
Of one forgetful moment hungry eyes implore
          You to be kind, to open up your heart a little more,
I’m sure you’d smile a little kindlier, sometimes,
          To those of us you’ve never seen before.

If you could know the eagerness we’d grasp
          The hand you’d give to us in friendliness;
What vast, potential friendship in that clasp
          We’d press, and love you for your gentleness;
If you could know the wide, wide reach
          Of love that simple friendliness could teach,
I’m sure you’d say “Hello, my friend,” sometimes, 
          And now and then extend a hand in friendliness to each.

This poem is in the public domain. Published in Poem-a-Day on March 7, 2021, by the Academy of American Poets.

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“If You Knew” originally appeared in University of Oklahoma Magazine 11 (April, 1923).

Ruth Muskrat Bronson, also known as Ruth Margaret Muskrat, was born on October 3, 1897, in the Delaware Nation Reservation. Remembered for her work as a leader in Native American education and as an activist for Native American rights, she is the author of Indians Are People Too (Friendship Press, 1944). She died on June 12, 1982, in Tucson, Arizona.
 
Changing Is Not Vanishing
(University of Pennsylvania Press, 2012)

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Thanks to Sasha Pimentel, author of For Want of Water (Beacon Press, 2017), who curated Poem-a-Day for this month’s weekdays. Read a Q&A about Pimentel’s curatorial approach and find out more about our guest editors for the year
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