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 all are in this together, and we have to stay together (virtually, of course) in order to make it through. And we had to include one of my personal favorites, the classic “Invictus” by William Ernest Henley (1849-1903).  As important as it is to work together, we must all individually dig deep to find the personal strength and resilience to keep going.  “Invictus” is an anthem for this.

Two poems follow from poets new to Thoughtful Thursday:  “Instructions on Not Giving Up” by Ada Limón (b.1976).  An award winning poet from Sonoma, California, Limón’s poem suggests that we look to the return of tree’s green leaves every year to give us hope.  And finally, “Brown Love” by poet, educator and artist Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha (b.1975) describes how good it feels when we look out for one another.

Shout out to Poets.org for their ongoing efforts to champion poetry, and their recent focus on poems that can soothe and inspire in these crazy times.  Share these poems with your children.  Enjoy!

 

Alone

Lying, thinking
Last night
How to find my soul a home
Where water is not thirsty
And bread loaf is not stone
I came up with one thing
And I don’t believe I’m wrong
That nobody,
But nobody
Can make it out here alone.

Alone, all alone
Nobody, but nobody
Can make it out here alone.

There are some millionaires
With money they can’t use
Their wives run round like banshees
Their children sing the blues
They’ve got expensive doctors
To cure their hearts of stone.
But nobody
No, nobody
Can make it out here alone.

Alone, all alone
Nobody, but nobody
Can make it out here alone.

Now if you listen closely
I’ll tell you what I know
Storm clouds are gathering
The wind is gonna blow
The race of man is suffering
And I can hear the moan,
‘Cause nobody,
But nobody
Can make it out here alone.

Alone, all alone
Nobody, but nobody
Can make it out here alone.

Maya Angelou

Invictus