Good Night, Willie Lee, I'll See You in the Morning.

Alice Walker (1944- ) born in Georgia and educated at Sarah Lawrence College. She has been a prolific writer of fiction, essays, and poetry. Among her novels are Meridian and The color Purple. Her collected essays about women have been published as In Search of Our Mothers' Gardens. She has also written a biography of Langston Hughes and edited an anthology of the works of Zora Neale Hurston. Her poem "Good Night, Willie Lee, I'll See You in the Morning" first appeared in the lowa Review in 1975 and was the title poem of a collection published in 1979. Looking down into my father's dead face for the last time my mother said without tears, without smiles without regrets but with civility "Good night, Willie Lee, I'll see you in the morning." And it was then I knew that the healing of all our wounds is forgiveness that permits a promise of our return at the end.