Poetry Friday - Poetry Swap Gratitude

     

          It's Poetry Friday! Thanks, Margaret Simon HERE at her blog, Reflections on the Teche for hosting.  Be sure you read Margaret's Ode today of a sweet strawberry gift! 

           The long, hot days of summer bring a certain languor. Often it feels as if there is little to do but sit still and hope for a breeze. Tabatha Yeatts-Lonske's loving idea for Poetry Swaps, summer and winter, bring joyful surprises in the mail, bring a kind of energy that's been lacking. This time, I had the pleasure of receiving special mail from Tabatha herself! Here, a lovely note, some cute stickers, a quote I've placed at my workspace, and a poem about kindness. 

                

 

Thanks so much, Tabatha!

I sigh and smile,

                read Thoreau,

                feeling blessed,

                ponder kindnesses

                we often miss:

                a smile and wave

                across the street,

                someone who stops

                to let me pet their dog,

                and someone –

                that poet across the miles –

                who writes a poem for me.

 

Linda Baie ©

Poetry Friday is Here! Welcome!

 

Welcome to the first May #PoetryFriday

And, Happy Cinco de Mayo!

photo from Vecteezy

published in 2019

       I've been reading this book on and off for months. I read a few poems and then move to other poetry books I have. I put stickies on the pages of poems I especially love. Recently, while trying to choose what to do for today, I found one of my favorite poems, "Small Kindnesses" by Danusha Laméris, in the New York Times. Note that this poem was published in the Times in September of 2019, only a few months before March, the US month of lockdown.

You can read the beginning here:

I’ve been thinking about the way, when you walk
down a crowded aisle, people pull in their legs
to let you by. Or how strangers still say “bless you”
when someone sneezes, a leftover
from the Bubonic plague. “Don’t die,” we are saying.
And sometimes, when you spill lemons
from your grocery bag, someone else will help you
pick them up. Mostly, we don’t want to harm each other.

                                    and the rest here.

        In that year of 2019, it seems that even then, there was need for all of us to be kind. My car was hit recently by a driver who ran a stop sign, in a rather quiet neighborhood. More than one driver slowed and offered help. Though my son-in-law came fairly fast, I was grateful that even strangers tried to give me comfort.

       And then, in April of 2022,  the times posted still another article saying this: "After more than 1,300 teenagers told us about the small kindnesses they appreciate, the poet Danusha Laméris wove their answers into verse."  You can read that collaborative poem here. 

           Here are a few of the beginning lines:

"Kindness is neighbors saying “Buenos Dias”

It’s the man in the red shirt helping the woman in the floral blouse cross the street. 

It’s the way my heart sings when I’m smiling at a baby, and their mom notices and lifts up the baby’s sweet little hand and waves it at me.

A friend patiently waiting as you quickly tie your loose shoelaces, while everyone continues walking.

A slight buzz in your jean pockets indicating messages from friends appearing out of the blue, questioning how you might be feeling that day, written in text abbreviations, the shared teenage experience.

Getting woken up at my bus stop."

           As you've already seen from my sharing up above, in what seems like such troubled times, even though we have made it through most of the Pandemic, I thought it would be nice for us to create our own "kindness" collaboration. It was a huge pleasure to create the Progressive poem created first by Irene Latham, then now managed by Margaret Simon. Let's do it again, with non-fiction "small kindnesses".

        If you leave something you notice in your special world, I will collect them and share next week.

          We know how much poetry helps us all in all kinds of ways! I hope you enjoy the words that Danusha Laméris has brought to us today. 

                            

HAPPY MAY!

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