Friday, March 27, 2020

Poetry Friday: Kindness, by Naomi Shihab Nye


There is so much fear, dread, and uncertainty in the world right now (and so much ugliness in the form of cavalier disregard for "the only ones") but I have seen — I'm sure you have, too — so much kindness, too.

So, Naomi Shihab Nye's "Kindness" seemed fitting for today.

Kindness
by Naomi Shihab Nye

Before you know what kindness really is
you must lose things,
feel the future dissolve in a moment
like salt in a weakened broth.
What you held in your hand,
what you counted and carefully saved,

(Read the rest here, at Poets.org.)


A couple of bears who are hanging out in our dining room window, ready to wave to passersby. 
#GoingOnABearHunt

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The round up this week is being hosted by the incomparable Tabatha Yeatts at The Opposite of Indifference

8 comments:

Linda Mitchell said...

such a perfect poem for now

tanita✿davis said...

Thank you. This is... just... perfect for today.

Michelle Heidenrich Barnes said...

I've always loved this poem, but somehow, today, I love it even more.

Linda B said...

I think we might be sharing our bears this week in the neighborhood, such a fun 'kind' thing to show our feelings for each other. Nye shows kindness in every poem I read of hers & this, of course, hits hard at this time in our lives: "Then it is only kindness that makes sense anymore". Thank you, Karen. Best wishes to you & your family for good health in this troubling time.

Mary Lee said...

SO true. Just like you need fear before you can be brave...

Tabatha said...

"our voice/catches the thread of all sorrows/and you see the size of the cloth./Then it is only kindness that makes sense anymore,"
Naomi Shihab Nye seems to have done two sides of the same coin here, like I was talking about in my post this week. It's exhausting seeing the size of the cloth. xo

Kay said...

Nye's poem is perfect for these days where there is much fear and loss and also so much kindness.

Liz Garton Scanlon said...

We need this...