Jane Addams (by Gwendolyn Brooks)

I am Jane Addams.

I am saying to the giantless time -

to the young and yammering, to the old and corrected,

well, chiefly to children coming home

with worried faces and questions about world-survival-

"Go ahead and live your life.

You might be surprised. The world might continue."

It was not easy for me, in the days of the giants.

And now they call me a giant.

Because my capitals were Labour, Reform, Welfare,

Tenement Regulation, Juvenile Court Law (the first),

Factory Inspection, Workmen's Compensation,

Woman Suffrage, Pacifism, Immigrant Justice.

And because

Black, brown, and white and red and yellow

heavied my hand and heart.

I shall tell you a thing about giants

that you do not wish to know:

Giants look in the mirror and see

almost nothing at all.

But they leave their houses nevertheless.

They lurch out of doors

to reach you, the other stretchers and strainers.

Erased under ermine or loud in tatters, oh,

money or mashed, you

matter.

You matter, and giants

must bother.

I bothered.

Whatever I was tells you

the world might continue. Go on with your preparations,

moving among the quick and the dead;

nourishing here, there;

pressing a hand

among the ruins

and among the

seeds of restoration.

So Speaks a giant. Jane.

ps from Christine: check out this amazing woman's wikipedia entry: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jane_Addams