Poem-a-Day - "Paradox" by Georgia Douglas Johnson

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December 11, 2021 

Paradox

Georgia Douglas Johnson

I know you love me better, cold—
Strange as the pyramids of old,
Responselessly;
But I am frail, am spent and weak
With surging torrents that bespeak
A living fire!
So, like a veil, my poor disguise
Is draped to save me from your eyes’
Deep challenges.
Fain would I fling this robe aside
And from you, in your bosom hide
Eternally!
Alas!
You love me better cold,
Like frozen pyramids of old,
Unyieldingly!

This poem is in the public domain. Published in Poem-a-Day on December 11, 2021, by the Academy of American Poets.

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“Paradox” appeared in The Messenger vol. VI, no. 7 (July, 1924).

Georgia Douglas Johnson was born in Atlanta, Georgia, in the late nineteenth century. An important figure of the Harlem Renaissance, her poetry collections include Bronze: A Book of Verses (B.J. Brimmer Company, 1922) and The Heart of a Woman and Other Poems (The Cornhill Company, 1918). She died in 1966.
The Messenger
(July, 1924)

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Thanks to Ilya Kaminsky, author of Deaf Republic (Graywolf Press, 2019), who curated Poem-a-Day for this month’s weekdays. Read a Q&A about Kaminsky’s curatorial approach and find out more about our guest editors for the year
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