“A House Called Tomorrow” by Alberto Rios

A House Called Tomorrow poem by Alberto Rios | AZpoetry.com

a house called tomorrow you are not 15
or 12 or 17 you are a hundred wild
centuries and 15 bringing with you in
every breath and in every step everyone
who has come before you all the use that
you have been the mothers of your mother
the fathers of your father if someone in
your family tree was trouble a hundred
were not the bad do not win not finally
no matter how loud they are we simply
would not be here if that were so you
are made fundamentally from the good
with this knowledge you never march
alone you are the breaking news of the
century you are the good who has come
forward through it all even if so many
days feel otherwise but think when you
as a child learned to speak it’s not
that you didn’t know words it’s that
from the centuries you knew so many and
it’s hard to choose the words that will
be your own from those centuries we
human beings bring with us the simple
solutions and songs the river bridges
and star charts and song harmonies all
in service to a simple idea that we can
make a house called tomorrow what we
bring finally into the new day every day
is ourselves and that’s all we need to
start that’s everything we require to
keep going look back
only for as long as you must then go
forward into the history you will make
be good then better write books cure
disease make us proud
make yourself proud and those who came
before you when you hear thunder hear it
as their applause

Transcribed from the video “Alberto Ríos: Dear Poet 2019” by Poets.org and Alberto Rios.

About the poet Alberto Rios

Discover the brilliance of Alberto Ríos, Arizona’s inaugural Poet Laureate and a celebrated author whose works capture the beauty of the Southwest and the complexity of human connection. Explore more about his life and poetry on HERE.