In Defense of the Awoken

Alan Berecka

March 1, 2023

“Wake the hell up, will you!”

my old man’s voice and anger

often grounded my mind’s flights

of fancy, returning me to the real

world and some assigned chore.

The state of awake-ness to him

was the core of a blue-collar ethos,

was the height of being, it meant

you cared enough to care, it meant

you wanted to get things right.

So to my friends who prefer to slumber

in the certainty of the Dark Ages,

before Galileo and the likes shook

the universe up, I plead as calmly

as I can, “Wake the hell up, won’t you!”

Alan Berecka is the author of five books of poetry, the latest A Living is Not a Life: A Working Title (2021, Black Spruce Press) was a finalist in the Hoffer Awards. His poetry has appeared in such journals and websites as The Christian Century, The Concho River Review, The Texas Review, The Texas Poetry Assignment, and The Main Street Rag.  He recently participated in the Lithuanian Writers Union’s international spring poetry festival which took place in May 2022. This was the second time Berecka has been invited to read at festivals in the birthplace of two grandparents. He earned his living for many years as a librarian at Del Mar College in Corpus Christi. In January 2023, he finally lived long enough so he retired. He and his wife Alice reside in Sinton, Texas where they raised their now two adult children.