Text within this block will maintain its original spacing when published
Before you know what kindness really is
Text within this block will maintain its original spacing when published
you must lose things,
Text within this block will maintain its original spacing when published
feel the future dissolve in a moment
Text within this block will maintain its original spacing when published
like salt in a weakened broth.
Text within this block will maintain its original spacing when published
What you held in your hand,
Text within this block will maintain its original spacing when published
what you counted and carefully saved,
Text within this block will maintain its original spacing when published
all this must go so you know
Text within this block will maintain its original spacing when published
how desolate the landscape can be
Text within this block will maintain its original spacing when published
between the regions of kindness.
Text within this block will maintain its original spacing when published
Text within this block will maintain its original spacing when published
How you ride and ride
Text within this block will maintain its original spacing when published
thinking the bus will never stop,
Text within this block will maintain its original spacing when published
the passengers eating maize and chicken
Text within this block will maintain its original spacing when published
will stare out the window forever.
Text within this block will maintain its original spacing when published
Before you learn the tender gravity of kindness
Text within this block will maintain its original spacing when published
you must travel where the Indian in a white poncho
Text within this block will maintain its original spacing when published
lies dead by the side of the road.
Text within this block will maintain its original spacing when published
You must see how this could be you,
Text within this block will maintain its original spacing when published
how he too was someone
Text within this block will maintain its original spacing when published
who journeyed through the night with plans
Text within this block will maintain its original spacing when published
and the simple breath that kept him alive.
Text within this block will maintain its original spacing when published
Text within this block will maintain its original spacing when published
Before you know kindness as the deepest thing inside,
Text within this block will maintain its original spacing when published
you must know sorrow as the other deepest thing.
Text within this block will maintain its original spacing when published
You must wake up with sorrow.
Text within this block will maintain its original spacing when published
You must speak to it till your voice
Text within this block will maintain its original spacing when published
catches the thread of all sorrows
Text within this block will maintain its original spacing when published
and you see the size of the cloth.
Text within this block will maintain its original spacing when published
Then it is only kindness that makes sense anymore,
Text within this block will maintain its original spacing when published
only kindness that ties your shoes
Text within this block will maintain its original spacing when published
and sends you out into the day to gaze at bread,
Text within this block will maintain its original spacing when published
only kindness that raises its head
Text within this block will maintain its original spacing when published
from the crowd of the world to say
Text within this block will maintain its original spacing when published
It is I you have been looking for,
Text within this block will maintain its original spacing when published
and then goes with you everywhere
Text within this block will maintain its original spacing when published
like a shadow or a friend.
Text within this block will maintain its original spacing when published
From Words Under the Words: Selected Poems. Copyright © 1995 by Naomi Shihab Nye. Reprinted with the permission of the author.
Hi everyone….
I hope you enjoyed the poem above. I’ve been reading this one daily this week.
I hope you’re well. If you’re not… take some time to slow down and let yourself not be well.
Our grief can only emerge when we slow down… when we let it come forth. And then we give that grief hospitality. We welcome its presence. We see if for what it is. And then we give it to the Divine… we let it go… on in another way… we forgive reality for not being what we wished it would be.
This week has been a big one. I’ve had to do a lot of discerning. I’ve been dropping kids off at school and just going to the Columbia River waterfront in Vancouver, WA and just walking, praying, reading, writing, and listening for what to do next. I’ve made a decision and I look forward to telling you about it next week when what I’ve committed to doing really washes over me.
I’ll see you then. Have a stellar weekend.
No posts
Comments
Nothing yet. Say the first thing.
Sign in to join the conversation.