Immigrant
– Poem by Marlene Tartaglione –
Honourable Mention in the Dreamers 2021 Stories of Migration, Sense of Place and Home Contest
“I celebrate myself and sing myself;
And what I assume, you shall assume,
For every atom belonging to me as good as belongs to you…”
Walt Whitman, Song of Myself, Leaves of Grass
I am
the Other Side of the story, the face
from a picture book whose title
you cannot pronounce:
In another life
I forged with you across continents,
hauling my history's
crudely-hewn grace
over waves which could scarcely
hold me up. The crusts on which I fed
even the pigeons refused,
but like the pigeons, I multiplied
into many clandestine tribes…
My poverty
was complete: My voice,
hoisted up the long ropes that led
to this song: I had a son
& he had a son,
our progeny
air, earth, water, fire… We evolved from
a dream which grew into an empire—
In the beginning, spawned
only by our blood:
Now, it is your own
…Thrust, as if still-born, through clouds
of ether & wreathes of foul air,
we battled wild currents
prolific as plague,
past quarantine, sewer—
from Birth to Old Age—
Rising, falling, then rising again—
an endless
vortex
of tenement stairs.
Still, we endured,
embraced & embellished
the years…
Like stained flags on a matrix
of polio & typhoid,
grief was our anthem, struggle, our stage.
How
we transcended fists, throngs
of asbestos & mud!— yet emerged
as forged monuments,
'though exiled
deeper
into the harsh shape
of our own hammered blood.
…Still, the Dream remains
our Beacon,
enduring spark
proclaiming
each life a Living Ember:
…If the music
which you hear
is the Song of Someone Else,
it is because
you fail to remember.About the Author – Marlene Tartaglione
Marlene Tartaglione is a poet, writer and visual artist who was born and raised in New York City. Her work has appeared in various literary presses throughout the country, venues such as Artist & Influence, Fertile Ground, The Chronogram, Wind Literary Journal, as well as publications by NYU and The Cooper Union. Ms. Tartaglione is the recipient of four poetry prizes (awarded 1981, 1994, 2021, 2021), three international, the other New York University’s 1994 Samuel Rubin Award for Outstanding Poem of the Year. Her work has been presented at the New York Cultural Center, The Henry Street Settlement’s New Federal Theater, the Brooklyn Museum, Barnes & Noble/ B. Dalton Booksellers, as well as the Society for Ethical Culture in Manhattan. Her writing is also included in the archives of the Museum of Modern Art in New York City, Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia, and the University of Buffalo in Buffalo, New York.
Ms. Tartaglione has been involved in children’s literature as well as advocacy for Human Rights. She believes art & compassionate action are one, a powerful tool for positive social change. A nature lover as well as avid city-dweller, she divides much of her time between Manhattan’s Lower East Side and upstate New York’s scenic Hudson Valley.
Ms. Tartaglione’s graduate work at New York University was conducted with children’s literature scholar Dr. Constantine Georgiou, and Professor George C. Stoney, documentarian. A member of the Academy of American Poets and Poetry Society of America, Ms. Tartaglione also holds a B.F.A. from the Cooper Union, where she studied poetry with Dr. Brian Swann.
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**This poem by Marlene Tartaglione received an Honourable Mention in the 2021 Stories of Migration, Sense of Place & Home Contest.
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