The World Will Follow Joy: Turning Madness into Flowers (New Poems)

By Alice Walker

A poetry collection of “playful and crooning lyricism” from the National Book Award– and Pulitzer Prize–winning author of The Color Purple (Booklist).
 
In this dazzling new collection, Alice Walker offers over sixty new poems to incite and nurture contemporary activists. Hailed as a “lavishly gifted writer,” Walker imbues her poetry with evocative images, fresh language, anger, forgiveness, and profound wisdom (The New York Times).
 
Casting her eye toward history, politics, and nature, as well as to world figures such as Jimmy Carter, Gloria Steinem, and the Dalai Lama, she “distills struggles, crises, and tragedies down to bright, singing lessons in living with awareness and joy” (Booklist).
 
By attentively chronicling the conditions of human life today, Walker shows, as ever, her deep compassion, profound spirituality, and necessary political commitments. The poems in The World Will Follow Joy remind us of our human capacity to come together and take action, even in our troubled political times. “Her spirituality, concern for human rights, and almost old-fashioned, determined joyousness run deep and her devoted readers will want to follow her as she turns ‘madness into flowers’” (Library Journal).

• Language: English
• Publisher: Open Road Integrated Media
• Release date: Apr 2, 2013
• ISBN: 9781595588876

Alice Walker

Alice Walker, winner of the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award, is a canonical figure in American letters. She is the author of The Color Purple, The Temple of My Familiar, Horses Make a Landscape Look More Beautiful, The Way Forward Is with a Broken Heart, Now Is the Time to Open Your Heart, and many other works of fiction, poetry, and nonfiction. Her writings have been translated into more than two dozen languages, and more than fifteen million copies of her books have been sold worldwide. 

Book preview

What Makes the Dalai Lama Lovable?

His posture

From so many years

Holding his robe with one hand

Is odd.

His gait

Also.

One’s own body

Aches

Witnessing

The sloping

Shoulders

& Angled

Neck;

One hopes

He

Attends

Yoga class

Or does Yoga

On his own

As part

Of prayer.

He smiles

As he bows

To Everything:

Accepting

The heavy

Burdens

Of

This earth;

Its

Toxic

Evils

& Prolific

Insults.

Even so,

He sleeps

Through

The night

Like a child

Because

Thank goodness

That is something

Else

Daylong

Meditation

Assures.

You could cry

Yourself to sleep

On his behalf

& He

Has done that

Too.

Life

Has been

A great

Endless

Tearing away

For

Him.

From

Mother, Father, Siblings, Country, Home.

And yet

Clearly

His mother

Loved him;

His brother & sister

Too: Even his

Not so constant father,

Who

When Tenzin was

A boy

Shared

With him

Delicious

Scraps

Of

Succulent

Pork.

He laughs

Telling this

Story

Over half a century

Later

&

To who knows

How many

Puzzled

Vegetarians:

About

The way he sat

Behind

His father’s chair

Like a dog,

Relishing

Each juicy

Greasy

Bite.

Whenever I see

The Dalai Lama

My first impulse

Is to laugh

I am so happy

To

Lay eyes

On

One

So effortlessly

Beautiful.

That balding head

That holds

A shine;

Those wire framed

Glasses

That might

Have come

From

Anywhere.

That look of having offered

All he has.

He is my teacher;

Just staying alive.

Other teachers

I have had

Resemble him

In some way;

They too

Were

&

Are

Smart

And Humble;

Fascinated

By Science & things like

Time,

Eternity,

Cause & Effect;

The Evolution

Of the Soul.

A

Soul

That

Might

Or might not

Exist.

They too

See all of us

—Banker, murderer, gardener, thief—

When they look

Out across

The world:

But that is not all

They see.

They see our suffering;

Our striving

To find

The right path;

The one with heart

We may only

Have heard about.

The Dalai Lama is Cool

A modern word

For

Divine

Because he wants

Only

Our collective

Health

& Happiness.

That’s it!

What makes

Him

Lovable

Is

His holiness.

***

If I Was President (Were May Be Substituted by Those Who Prefer It)

If I was President

The first thing I would do

is call Mumia Abu-Jamal.

No,

if I was President

the first thing I would do

is call Leonard Peltier.

No,

if I was President

the first person I would call

is that rascal

John Trudell.

No,

the first person I’d call

is that other rascal

Dennis Banks.

I would also call

Alice Walker.

I would make a conference call.

And I would say this:

Yo, you troublemakers,

it is time to let all of

Reviews for The World Will Follow Joy

[sbloom42 · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

To me, creating well-written poetry takes more effort than putting your "Deep Thoughts" on paper and then inserting line breaks to make the line-lengths incredibly short. I guess what I'm looking for in poetry is the space to bring in my own interpretation, and then bring in another and another interpretation; with each successive reading bringing me closer to what I see as the "heart" of the poem. These poems don't provide that space. If you're looking for poetry that tells you how to think, this book might be for you.

[yolanda2robinson · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This is a precious book for our times. Alice Walker takes us by the hand to experience the brokenness of ourselves through earth, through the words that describe our connection to Earth the Mother, to all our relations. It is playful, words can be playful. It is joyful; yes we can feel Joy in spite of it all. That is embracing the world we live and feeling it deep in us.