The New Collossus - 近义词

Mother of Exiles - Pray for Us

'Angel of the Waters'

Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame
With conquering limbs astride from land to land;
Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand
A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name
Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand
Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command
The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame,

"Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!" cries she
With silent lips. "Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore,
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"
-Emma Lazarus

|...I know the more jaded of you will note that this is NOT the Statue of Liberty - but it's still my favorite poem, and the 'Angel of the Waters' in Central Park is my favorite statue.

'Mother of Exiles' is my favorite poem because it reminds me of when I first came to AA - I felt so ugly, so dirty, so different and unworthy, and you people loved me, warts and all.  AA takes everbody!  Our third tradtion guarantees our admittance!  This is why it is so insidously evil to plot and strategize on who get's to participate or not...such a sad way to live!  I feel terrible for some of those poor souls at that clubhouse, really I do.

Each AA meeting was like a torch lit besides a stormy harbor for me when I was new...till one day, my spiritual mentor (well, guru, more like it) opened the book Alcoholics Anonymous and lit my heart with pages 84 and 85.  Now, as a recovered member of AA my job is light the hearts of other members of AA so that they no longer have to desperately seek the torch of sobriety outside themselves - they can carry it within.  'A candle loses nothing by lighing another candle'.  Only maniacs and untreated alcholics have to live from meeting to meeting.  Our book says 'we live life one day at a time'.  Once we recover, we stay sober forever, provided that we remain spiritually fit.

Also, hear what she says!  'Give me your storied pomp'!  She is 'suggesting' we do our 4th and 5th steps!  Pomp is ego, and THAT is on page 55!  This is such an AA poem!  And to think I grew up looking at Lady Liberty, knowing full well that somehow, someday, she was going to mean much more to me than just a statue in the harbor outside my window.  You know, I could see her from every place I've ever lived in till I left New York last January.

As far as the 'Angel of the Waters' is concerned, when she was first released to the public after the Civil War in dedication to all the Union Navy that died in the war, she was denounced by the critics as being ugly and 'unattractive' as a milkmaid'.  Look how glorious she looks now!  Much like me - I was told by many 'enlightened' people in AA that I'd never stay sober, never mind become an actual sucess in life.

Those people are all dead now - all of them at their own hand by drink, bullet or rope. No God, no sanity.  No sanity, no sobriety.  No live, no liberty.

Thank God for AA - for without it I'd be miserable or dead.  Tonight is day 66/90 in my beloved clubhouse - I am going to miss them all;  but it's time for me to move on.  They know where the real message is;  it's not my business to change anyone or anything;  all I can do is lay the simple spiritual toolkit I've been given at their feet for their inspection and move on.  I will be forever grateful for that room - their kindness to me is exemplary. 

God bless us all, every one.

COG, 1st Cl.|