We Saw Beyond Our Seeming
We Saw Beyond Our Seeming - meaning Summary
Witnessing Collective Moral Failure
The poem confronts collective culpability and the moral cost of looking away. Speaker remembers scenes of violence and suffering—children dying, lynched men—and admits a shared, willful complicity. Imagery of decay and silence emphasizes guilt that has spread and ossified into a barren inner state. The closing lines present broken, tokenless souls as the consequence of failing to act or acknowledge injustice, urging ethical self-recognition.
Read Complete AnalysesWe saw beyond our seeming These days of bloodied screaming Of children dying bloated Out where the lilies floated Of men all noosed and dangling Within the temples strangling Our guilt grey fungus growing We knew and lied our knowing Deafened and unwilling We aided in the killing And now our souls lie broken Dry tablets without token.
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