Tuesday, June 14, 2016

We Will Survive



I Will Survive
Gloria Gaynor

At first I was afraid, I was petrified
Kept thinking I could never live without you by my side
But then I spent so many nights thinking how you did me wrong
And I grew strong
And I learned how to get along
And so you're back
From outer space
I just walked in to find you here with that sad look upon your face
I should have changed that stupid lock, I should have made you leave your key
If I'd known for just one second you'd be back to bother me
Go on now, go, walk out the door
Just turn around now
'Cause you're not welcome anymore
Weren't you the one who tried to hurt me with goodbye
Do you think I'd crumble
Did you think I'd lay down and die?

Oh no, not I, I will survive
Oh, as long as I know how to love, I know I'll stay alive
I've got all my life to live
And I've got all my love to give and I'll survive
I will survive, hey, hey1

It took all the strength I had not to fall apart
Kept trying hard to mend the pieces of my broken heart
And I spent oh-so many nights just feeling sorry for myself
I used to cry
But now I hold my head up high and you see me
Somebody new
I'm not that chained-up little person and still in love with you
And so you felt like dropping in and just expect me to be free
Well, now I'm saving all my lovin' for someone who's loving me
Go on now, go, walk out the door
Just turn around now
'Cause you're not welcome anymore
Weren't you the one who tried to break me with goodbye
Do you think I'd crumble
Did you think I'd lay down and die?

Oh no, not I, I will survive
Oh, as long as I know how to love, I know I'll stay alive
I've got all my life to live
And I've got all my love to give and I'll survive
I will survive

Oh
Go on now, go, walk out the door
Just turn around now
'Cause you're not welcome anymore
Weren't you the one who tried to break me with goodbye
Do you think I'd crumble
Did you think I'd lay down and die?

Oh no, not I, I will survive
Oh, as long as I know how to love, I know I'll stay alive
I've got all my life to live
And I've got all my love to give and I'll survive
I will survive
I will survive

We will survive. I feel for those who lost loved ones in the tragedy in Orlando. I know how hard it can be to lose someone you love. But we will survive. We will survive as individuals. We will survive as a community. We will survive as a country. We will survive.

When writing about the song in her book We Will Survive, Gloria Gaynor wrote, “I wanted everybody—including myself—to believe that we could survive." "I Will Survive" had a particularly large influence within the LGBT community at the time of its release. This was mostly attributed to the lack of acceptance of LGBT individuals at the time. Because of this, the song is often referred to as the Queer Anthem. The LGBT community is said to have identified with "I Will Survive" because the textual message of defiant and enduring presence was already well tailored to queer identification needs, but this message and the song’s titular statement took on even deeper meaning with the dawn of the AIDS epidemic in the 1980s.

Since this is Pride Month, I had chosen to use various gay anthems for the poetry this month. Originally, "I Will Survive" was meant to be the last in the series, but in the wake of the tragedy in Orlando, I decided to use it this week instead because we will survive this tragedy.

3 comments:

Michael Dodd said...

A good reminder. Already my mother told me that "the gays" have to be careful. Careful yes; imprisoned in the closet and second-class citizenship again, never!

Susan said...

Beautiful words, Joe; the song's and yours. They say it all. <3

JiEL said...

With that last and so sad act of a fool, I saw many americans standing behind the gays and their relatives to mourn and pray.

USA is changing and LGBT as one of the many suffering of violent acts is being supported as well by ALL Americans (and Canadians and many people of the democratic countries.)

No need to go back in the closet: it's time to show that we are «normal» guys and that we too can be suffering from sad actions.

BTW, on TV news here they assume that the Pulse killer had a struggle of being an homosexual. Struggle between that and his religious believes.
With his violent behaviour this was a very dangerous psychological mix.