Refernecing the famous fair housing march her husband led across what was then called the 16th Street Viaduct Rozga says "one question people often ask is about what it felt like to march across the viaduct into a hostile crowd. So I thought a lot about how best to describe that feeling. This poem does that but then also takes a positive turn." In 1998 the 16th Street Viaduct was offcially renamed the James E. Groppi Unitiy Brdige.

Seasoning for Courage

There grows
no herb of help to heal a coward heart.
      --Algernon Charles Swinburne

Taste
bile churning up
into your throat?

That’s the bitter moment before
courage     Courage

itself has a wild, fresh air taste
something like the soft grey-green of sage

like cold air warming up for snowfall
like oolong tea brewed with artesian water
perhaps slightly over brewed

Before the taste the sound

the melting of ice above the tree line
the shift of wind from west to north
the essential rush of greening maple

the beating of a mother’s heart
at the moment of giving birth

Margaret Rozga at the Urban Ecology Center Menomonee Valley
Tuesday, November 12th
7 - 8:30 p.m.
Join us at our Menomonee Valley branch to hear more of Margaret Rozga's poetry, stories of her involvement in the civil rights movement, and her excitement about the re-imagining and rebirth of the Menomonee Valley.
Click here to register!