Today's Thoughtful Thursday celebrates the work of Elizabeth Alexander--highly respected poet, essayist, playwright and teacher. Professor Alexander was recently named a Chancellor of the Academy of American Poets, as well as the inaugural Frederick Iseman Professor of Poetry at Yale University. She is the former Chair of the African American Studies Department at Yale University. In 2009, she composed [...]
Today being Dr. King's birthday, we will honor him with a few of his memorable quotes. Enjoy, and Happy Birthday to ya, Dr. King! Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. Faith is taking the first step even when you don't see the whole staircase. We must accept finite disappointment, but never lose infinite hope. The time is [...]
Today's Thoughtful Thursday is a link to a New York Times article in which journalist Nicholas Kristof invites readers to submit poems about race in America. He received more than 300 poems, and the ones he includes in the article are rich and thought provoking. Worth reading. You will find it here. We'll end this quick post as Kristof [...]
Today's Thoughtful Thursday will be not poetry or quotes but simply a thought for the New Year: May the year 2015 be a year of health, joy, discovery, wonder, learning, and tremendous growth for you and your children, especially those boys!!! Rather than ask for your resolutions, we'd like to make some for you: Resolve to practice conscious and [...]
Merry Christmas to all! Hope you and your family have had a great day. Here are a few Christmas quotes to keep you in the spirit. I know what I really want for Christmas. I want my childhood back. Nobody is going to give me that. I might give at least the memory of it to myself if I [...]
With Christmas a mere week away, some combination of school holiday programs, final exams, holiday prep and Christmas shopping are probably wearing many parents down. So for today's Thoughtful Thursday, here are a few holiday poems designed to lift your spirits and give you and your sons something to smile about during this pre-Christmas rush. Enjoy. The Boy Who [...]
GCP was out and about today and in our travels we passed the Christmas tree in Rockefeller Center. Looking up at the huge tree with its sparkling lights we couldn't help but feel a touch of the Christmas spirit. And so here are a couple of Christmas poems from Maya Angelou and Langston Hughes to help you do the [...]
On this Thoughtful Thursday our thoughts could be on nothing else but the incredible failure of another grand jury to indict a police officer for killing an unarmed Black man. And using an illegal chokehold to take him down as a cellphone camera recorded the entire thing, so there is no question as to what transpired. As this is [...]
Happy Thanksgiving to you all from GCP! Even though we took Thursday off to celebrate with family and friends and stuff ourselves silly, we could not let this week pass without a Thoughtful Thursday for the holiday. And so today we offer a lineup of Thanksgiving inspired poetry from African American poets. First, the very appropriate "Thanksgiving Time" from [...]
With much of the nation focused on the cold weather these days, Today's Thoughtful Thursday follows suit, featuring poems about the chilly days of Fall. In "Fall, Leaves, Fall" Emily Bronte celebrates the season's change from fall to winter, and in "Winter Trees" William Carlos Williams writes approvingly of the changes that winter brings. Claude McKay encourages us to [...]