Abortions will not let you forget. You remember the children you got that you did not get.
Interpretation
This quote reflects on the lasting emotional impact of abortion and the memories of lost children.
Gwendolyn Brooks' quote highlights the profound grief and remembrance that accompanies the experience of abortion. It suggests that the decision to terminate a pregnancy leaves an indelible mark on one's memory and emotional landscape, as the thoughts of the potential children linger long after the choice is made.
In practice
In a discussion about reproductive rights, this quote can illustrate the emotional consequences of abortion.
Say to them, say to the down-keepers, the sun-slappers, the self-soilers, the harmony-hushers, "Even if you are not ready for day it cannot always be night." You will be right. For that is the hard home-run. Live not for battles won. Live not for the-end-of-the-song. Live in the along.
What I'm fighting for now in my work... for an expression relevant to all manner of blacks, poems I could take into a tavern, into the street, into the halls of a housing project.
Very early in life I became fascinated with the wonders language can achieve. And I began playing with words.
A writer should get as much education as possible, but just going to school is not enough; if it were, all owners of doctorates would be inspired writers.
I shall create! If not a note, a hole./If not an overture, a desecration.
Art is a refining and evocative translation of the materials of the world.
Life is not a matter of holding good cards, but sometimes, playing a poor hand well.
Stop thinking about life and choose to live it
I always tell people I'm grateful for my cancer diagnosis because it was the greatest gift because it completely changed my life. I was able to stop and let my whole life and world just crash over me like a wave. And I stood there and went, 'Wow.' And for the first time, I stopped everything. I had to.
One of the very first things I figured out about life...is that it's better to be a hopeful person than a cynical, grumpy one, because you have to live in the same world either way, and if you're hopeful, you have more fun.
The first priority will consist in restoring a sense of the acceptance of life as a gift from God. According to both Sacred Scripture and the wisest traditions of your continent, the arrival of a child is always a gift, a blessing from God. Today it is high time to place greater emphasis on this: every human being, every tiny human person, however weak, is created 'in the image and likeness of God' (Gen 1:27)
It seemed cruel for a day to dawn so fair and end so foul as this one promised to.
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