The Nature of Blood
from Michelle Loo
Throughout the poem “We Need a God Who Bleeds Now”, Shange is describing two kinds of gods; one kind of god who bleeds “some small male vengeance” while the other kind of god bleeds birth and life, “whose wounds are not the end of anything”. She argues for the latter kinds of gods. It is interesting that she uses traditionally violent and negative rhetoric to describe both kinds of gods. By traditionally violent and negative, I mean words that are usually used in violent and negative contexts. In describing the kind of gods we do not need, she uses the words “vengeance,” “pitiful,” and “humility”. In one interpretation, she seems to be describing death, murder, war, and politics. I would like to explore her choice to use the same violent and negative rhetoric in describing the kinds of gods we do need. She uses the words “tearing,” “breaks,” “bleeding,” “heaving,” and “mourning” to describe in one interpretation would be the kinds of gods or people that give birth to life. Shange seems to be drawing a parallel between the kinds of people in the world who are killing and those who are giving birth through the similar emotions those actions evoke. Both actions involve bleeding, a certain amount of violence, force, and overall intense and strong emotions. Therefore perhaps Shange is also making a claim about the range of emotions that we feel as people. She is not putting a value system among the different emotions, rather she is putting a value system for the reasons we feel those emotions.
The way Shange juxtaposes blood and emotions in the different contexts reminds me a poem in Nayyirah Waheed’s book of poetry, Salt.
why can we never
talk
about the blood.
the blood of our ancestors.
the blood of our history.
the blood between our legs.
— blood
It seems that Nayyirah Waheed is doing the same juxtaposition with the word “blood”. Asking to talk about the “blood of our ancestors,” and “history” suggest violence, death, and negativity. But “the blood between our legs,” is harmless and even fruitful.