Pause for Poetry

Did you know we're in the middle of National Poetry Month?

What poems inspire YOU to listen and to learn?

We could use a little "Hope" in our conversations with one another. 

If "Hope" truly is "the thing with feathers"
as Emily Dickinson famously wrote,
let's help it take flight! 

Share a little poetic inspiration with a friend this month!

Do you know "A Brave and Startling Truth" by Maya Angelou?

She wrote it for the 50th Anniversary of the United Nations.

​It begins...

A Brave and Startling Truth
by, Maya Angelou

We, this people, on a small and lonely planet
Traveling through casual space
Past aloof stars, across the way of indifferent suns
To a destination where all signs tell us
It is possible and imperative that we learn
A brave and startling truth 
​
And when we come to it
To the day of peacemaking
When we release our fingers
From fists of hostility
And allow the pure air to cool our palms...

Click below to hear her reading the poem in its entirety...
Maya Angelou Reads "A Brave and Startling Truth"
at the United Nations 50th Anniversary Celebration in 1995

Another of our beloved American poets,
Mary Oliver,
passed away this year.  
Here is one of her thoughtful poems,
inspired by nature...

During National Poetry Month,
let's remember to draw inspiration from our poets!

As we strive to find common ground,

We can keep hope alive...

We can learn a brave and startling truth...

and

We can take a lesson from the sea...
​
and keep working!