by Alice Walker
We are the ones we have been waiting for.
Permissions
Grateful acknowledgment is made for permission to print or reprint the following material:
“Poem for South African Women” from Passion: New Poems, 1977–80 by June Jordan. Copyright June Jordan; reprinted by permission of the June M. Jordan Literary Estate Trust (www.junejordan.com).
“Childhood” (chapter 2, this volume) by Alice Walker from Dream Me Home Safely, copyright 2003 by Children’s Defense Fund. Published by Houghton Mifflin. Reprinted by permission of The Wendy Weil Agency, Inc.
“When Life Descends into the Pit” (poem near the start of chapter 3, this volume) from By the Light of My Father’s Smile by Alice Walker, copyright 1998 by Alice Walker. Used by permission of Random House, Inc.
“A Blessing” by Stephen Philbrick. Used with permission of the author.
“Until I Was Nearly Fifty,” “Loss of Vitality,” “My Friend Yeshi,” and “The Writer’s Life” from Absolute Trust in the Goodness of the Earth: New Poems by Alice Walker, copyright 2002 by Alice Walker. Used by permission of Random House, Inc.
“We Have Been Telling People” by The Elders, Hopi Nation.
“Crimes Against Dog” (chapter 5, this volume) by Alice Walker, copyright 2003 by Alice Walker, from Dog is My Co-Pilot: Great Writers on the World’s Oldest Friendship, edited by Bark. Published by Crown. Reprinted by permission of The Wendy Weil Agency, Inc.
“This Was Not an Area of Large Plantations” (chapter 6, this volume) was a speech given in Woodacre, California, on August 16, 2002. Reprinted by permission of The Wendy Weil Agency, Inc.
“At First, It Is True, I Thought There Were Only Peaches and Wild Grapes” from Absolute Trust in the Goodness of the Earth: New Poems by Alice Walker, copyright 2002 by Alice Walker. Used by permission of Random House, Inc.
“We Have A Beautiful Mother” from Her Blue Body Everything We Know: Earthling Poems 1965–1990 Complete by Alice Walker, copyright 1991 by Alice Walker. Reprinted by permission of Harcourt, Inc.
“The Gospel According to Shug” from The Temple of My Familiar by Alice Walker, copyright 1989 by Alice Walker. Reprinted by permission of Harcourt, Inc.
“Now That You Are With Me Like My People and the Dignity of the World” (chapter 8, this volume) by Alice Walker from Letters of Love and Hope: The Story of the Cuban Five, copyright 2005 by Alice Walker. Published by Ocean Press. Reprinted by permission of The Wendy Weil Agency, Inc.
Excerpts from Letters of Love and Hope: The Story of the Cuban Five (2005) reprinted with permission of Ocean Press.
“Metta to Muriel and Other Marvels: A Poet’s Experience of Meditation” (chapter 9, this volume) by Alice Walker, copyright 2001. Originally published in the New York Times. Reprinted in Writers on Writing, Henry Holt, 2001. Reprinted by permission of The Wendy Weil Agency, Inc.
Excerpt from Meridian by Alice Walker, copyright 1976 by Alice Walker. Reprinted by permission of Harcourt, Inc.
“Thousands of Feet Below You,” “Not Children,” “Patriot,” “When We Let Spirit Lead Us,” and “Remember” from Absolute Trust in the Goodness of the Earth: New Poems by Alice Walker, copyright 2002 by Alice Walker. Used by permission of Random House, Inc.
“The Glimpse of Life Beyond the Words” (chapter 11, this volume) by Alice Walker from Inside Borders, Borders bookstore magazine, copyright 1998 by Alice Walker. Used by permission of The Wendy Weil Agency, Inc.
“Love Is Not Concerned” from Her Blue Body Everything We Know: Earthling Poems 1965–1990 Complete by Alice Walker, copyright 1991 by Alice Walker. Reprinted by permission of Harcourt, Inc.
“Sent by Earth: A Message From the Grandmother Spirit” (chapter 12, this volume) by Alice Walker from Sent by Earth, copyright 2001 by Alice Walker; adapted from a speech to the Midwives Alliance of North America, Albuquerque, New Mexico, September 22, 2001. Published by Seven Stories Press in Association with Open Media. Reprinted by permission of The Wendy Weil Agency, Inc.
Extract from address given at Peace for Cuba Rally, February 1, 1992, from Anything We Love Can Be Saved: A Writer’s Activism by Alice Walker, copyright 1997 by Alice Walker. Used by permission of Random House, Inc.
“A Native Person Looks Up from the Plate” from Absolute Trust in the Goodness of the Earth: New Poems by Alice Walker, copyright 2002 by Alice Walker. Used by permission of Random House, Inc.
Excerpt from Call Me By My True Names: The Collected Poems of Thich Nhat Hanh by Thich Nhat Hanh, copyright 1999 by Thich Nhat Hanh. Reprinted with permission of Parallax Press, Berkeley, CA (www.parallax.org).
“S M” from Horses Makes a Landscape Look More Beautiful: Poetry by Alice Walker, copyright 1984 by Alice Walker. Reprinted by permission of Harcourt, Inc.
Excerpts from The Millionth Circle (1999) by Jean Shinoda Bolen reprinted with permission of Conari Press.
“Soul Wound: The Legacy of Native American Schools” by Andrea Smith. Originally published in Amnesty International Magazine (formerly Amnesty Now), 2003. Used with permission of the author and Amnesty International.
© 2006 by Alice Walker
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced, in any form, without written permission from the publisher.
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Published in the United States by
The New Press, New York, 2006
Distributed by Two Rivers Distribution
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING-IN-PUBLICATION DATA
Walker, Alice, 1944-
We are the ones we have been waiting for :
inner light in a time of darkness / Alice Walker.
p. cm.
ISBN: 978-1-59558-137-2 (hc)
ISBN: 978-1-59558-216-4 (pbk)
I. Title.
PS3573.A425W43 2006
811’.54—dc22 2006013981
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Composition by dix!
This book was set in Sabon
