Discover new books on Goodreads
Meet your next favorite book
Derek Holden
https://www.goodreads.com/derekreads
When my father returned from some name on the European map that hung on the wall in our dining room, he smelled like other times and places, spicy and tired.
“Human beings suffer,
They torture one another,
They get hurt and get hard.
No poem or play or song
Can fully right a wrong
Inflicted and endured.
The innocent in gaols
Beat on their bars together.
A hunger-striker's father
Stands in the graveyard dumb.
The police widow in veils
Faints at the funeral home.
History says, don't hope
On this side of the grave.
But then, once in a lifetime
The longed-for tidal wave
Of justice can rise up,
And hope and history rhyme.
So hope for a great sea-change
On the far side of revenge.
Believe that further shore
Is reachable from here.
Believe in miracle
And cures and healing wells.
Call miracle self-healing:
The utter, self-revealing
Double-take of feeling.
If there's fire on the mountain
Or lightning and storm
And a god speaks from the sky
That means someone is hearing
The outcry and the birth-cry
Of new life at its term.”
―
They torture one another,
They get hurt and get hard.
No poem or play or song
Can fully right a wrong
Inflicted and endured.
The innocent in gaols
Beat on their bars together.
A hunger-striker's father
Stands in the graveyard dumb.
The police widow in veils
Faints at the funeral home.
History says, don't hope
On this side of the grave.
But then, once in a lifetime
The longed-for tidal wave
Of justice can rise up,
And hope and history rhyme.
So hope for a great sea-change
On the far side of revenge.
Believe that further shore
Is reachable from here.
Believe in miracle
And cures and healing wells.
Call miracle self-healing:
The utter, self-revealing
Double-take of feeling.
If there's fire on the mountain
Or lightning and storm
And a god speaks from the sky
That means someone is hearing
The outcry and the birth-cry
Of new life at its term.”
―
Booktok 📚
— 234707 members
— last activity 1 hour, 3 min ago
A place for booktokers to interact with each other and share the love
Derek’s 2025 Year in Books
Take a look at Derek’s Year in Books, including some fun facts about their reading.
658 books
|
49 friends
412 books
|
31 friends
239 books
|
1,356 friends
2,486 books
|
96 friends
122 books
|
4 friends
43 books
|
2 friends
37 books
|
36 friends
132 books
|
2,941 friends
More friends…
Favorite Genres
Polls voted on by Derek
Lists liked by Derek