Memorial Day is a few days away. While we are usually celebrating it as summer's official start, this year it makes much more sense to think about what the holiday is really about: honoring those who have died during war while serving the U.S. Honoring our war heroes. These days our war heroes have expanded beyond members of the [...]
As we wrap up the second full month of lockdown, we at GCP want to pay tribute to all of the many people who have been lost in this pandemic. Friends and family members who succumbed to the Covid-19 virus, as well as those lost to unrelated illnesses. Families and loved ones have been denied the ability to publicly [...]
We know this horrific story, we've heard it too many times before: On February 23rd, 2020, Ahmaud Arbery, a 25 year old Black man, was shot and killed by two white men as he jogged around his Georgia neighborhood. For almost three months, no charges were brought against the two men, a father and son who were known by [...]
There are glimmers of encouraging COVID-19 news these days: mortality rates falling, hospital admissions going down and releases going up, a drug showing promise at combatting the virus. In this spirit, today's Thoughtful Thursday offers poems of encouragement and hope. First, a favorite from Lucille Clifton (1936-2010), "Blessing the Boats", which holds the promise of a better day. "Instructions [...]
For today's Thoughtful Thursday (yes, we KNOW it's Friday, but in Covid-19 world the days are all running together) we continue to celebrate Poetry Month with a couple of poems about poetry. So meta, right? We start with Elizabeth Alexander's (b.1962) "Ars Poetica #100", in which she encourages her students (who are all of us) to find our poetic [...]
Since you are primarily in charge of teaching your children these days, why not teach them some poetry? April is Poetry Month, after all. In today's Thoughtful Thursday we will look at three poems by African American poets (all women, in fact), which you and your children can enjoy learning about and discussing. If you need some motivation to [...]
Today's Thoughtful Thursday features the poems of Marilyn Nelson, whose work we first featured in December 2019 . Marilyn Nelson was born in Cleveland, Ohio and was raised on several military bases, as her father was in the Air Force. Dr. Nelson, who began writing poetry in elementary school, earned her BA from the University of California, Davis, a masters [...]
Yesterday brought news that rocked the world of art and culture. Two African American giants, one of art and one of music, are gone, fallen to COVID-19: artist, art historian and curator Dr. David Driskell, and jazz pianist Ellis Marsalis. In today's Thoughtful Thursday we pay tribute to these great men. Dr. [...]
It's Thoughtful Thursday, and boy could we use some poetry to distract us right about now. Poets.org, the website of the Academy of American Poets, asked its membership to suggest poetry to help us cope and give us courage. Four of the many poems suggested are featured below. "Alone", by our beloved Maya Angelou (1928-2014), reminds us that we [...]
How is all this family togetherness working out for ya? It's Thoughtful Thursday, and we figured you and your children might need some comic relief. Here are a few wonderfully wicked poems by Shel Silverstein (who authored The Giving Tree). They were included in Beastly Boys and Ghastly Girls, a book of poems about ill-mannered boys and girls, compiled [...]