If only —
A 21st century, anti-imperialist response to Rudyard Kipling
If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too…
….
Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it,
And — which is more — you’ll be a Man, my son!Rudyard Kipling, If —
If only myths one earns the right to be
Were busted, adjusted by gentler truths
Love — your birthright — and everything you see
Ours for seeing, sharing from our youth;
If only you wait, or grown tired by waiting,
Or being lied to, opt to defy a world of liars,
Or being hated, look to the origins of hating
Root out cruel deeds that fuel most wild fires;
If only you dream, and make your dreams your master,
Not some lord, entombed on other’s makeshift throne;
You might breathe, and walk away from disaster,
Put aside fury, find your own way home;
If only you see each person cares their own truth be spoken,
Not masks, not uniforms we acquiesce to wear;
If only your childlike faith could not be broken,
Save that misguided certitude one way alone is just and fair;
If only you fill those uncertain, fleeting minutes
Of your lives with breath, and lift others when you falter;
Ours is the Earth, ’til time comes for us to quit it,
Make the best, live well, my dearest daughters!
© Tom Tordillo 2022. All Rights Reserved.
Before Queen Elizabeth II ascended to the throne, men like Rudyard Kipling were offered knighthood by monarchs of the British Empire. Remarkable.
Kipling declined that honor twice. Perhaps he felt guilty. An empire, witnessed up close, displays ugliness of imperialism. Perhaps he could not write stories praising an empire so easily if he took on imperial honors.
Kipling’s other “greatest hit” poem, “The White Man’s Burden,” called upon America to take up the same imperialism Britain had after the Philippine-American War. Did Kipling hope America might follow Britain’s colonial lead, colonize/annex the Philippines, master that archipelago and thereby prove the British way was proper?
Or was he trying to convince himself? “Fake it till you make it.”
Skillfully crafted rhyme resonates, like blacksmith hammers, and a poem may pound audiences into some fervent belief — or at least, a few minutes of effort striving to live up to that belief. After Kipling wrote “If — ” the toxic manliness he advocated manifested in a world prone to men marching into machine gun fire.
When he wrote lines like “East is East, and West is West, and never the twain shall meet” in 1889, Kipling proposed that “strong men” might actually overcome those differences once they recognized one another’s ‘manly strength’ — even in Afghanistan. Alas, reality has never worked that way.
In the 21st century, yoga, mindfulness, and ‘Eastern’ notions of well-being seem to permeate the cultural zeitgeist. Perhaps strengths stronger than manly myths are meeting in the twain?
