Poetry Friday - To Remember

         It's Poetry Friday, it's June, the month when summer arrives, at least officially! Welcoming us is  Margaret Simon at Reflections on The Teche.  Margaret writes alongside a line from Naomi Shihab Nye in a poignant letter of goodbye to her students. Thanks, Margaret!

Argument Gone Bad - full credit below

           Sometimes I wish this week weren't so, returning to the 'before' of George Floyd's death, for him. But I have hope that it will turn into good, that we can make change. I hope each of you continues to be well in light of the continuing virus threat, too. 

Do Not Forget This Week

Seeing bridge building

among people

can be as beautiful

as capturing a chasm

with strongest of steel, which we 

have managed, do manage,

will manage. 

Let us not stop!

Respecting those who are

determined-doers 

soul-solvers,

persistent-players

goal-getters

caring-completers

enduring-empathizers

and 

never-quitters.

Realizing my glass

cannot remain half-full, 

when others' stay half-empty.

Linda Baie ©

        I have been reading Richard Blanco's How To Love A Country: Poems for a while now. Several poems are favorites, but one feels right for this Friday. It is a persona poem written from a river's viewpoint speaking to us humans, humbling.

Complaint of El Río Grande 

     for Aylin Barbieri

I was meant for all things to meet:
to make the clouds pause in the mirror
of my waters, to be home to fallen rain
that finds its way to me, to turn eons
of loveless rock into lovesick pebbles
and carry them as humble gifts back
to the sea which brings life back to me.

I felt the sun flare, praised each star
flocked about the moon long before
you did. I’ve breathed air you’ll never
breathe, listened to songbirds before
you could speak their names, before
you dug your oars in me, before you
created the gods that created you.

the rest is here at Poets.Org


photo credit: natasia.causse Day 83/365 - Argument gone bad via photopin (license)