Last week, I received an email of out of the blue from a friend at Rice. It was regarding a poem exchange where you copy and paste the email to a number of your friends such that it propagates throughout the community. The “poem”, they clarify, can really be any sort of text or verse or lyric that has been comforting in hard times. I’d like to share a few of my favorites that students sent me – some from friends, some from strangers.
The Word
by Tony Hoagland
Down near the bottom
of the crossed-out list
of things you have to do today,
between “green thread”
and “broccoli” you find
that you have penciled “sunlight.”
Resting on the page, the word
is beautiful, it touches you
as if you had a friend
and sunlight were a present
he had sent you from some place distant
as this morning—to cheer you up,
and to remind you that,
among your duties, pleasure
is a thing
that also needs accomplishing.
Do you remember?
that time and light are kinds
of love, and love
is no less practical
than a coffee grinder
or a safe spare tire?
Tomorrow you may be utterly
without a clue
but today you get a telegram,
from the heart in exile
proclaiming that the kingdom
still exists,
the king and queen alive,
still speaking to their children,
—to any one among them
who can find the time,
to sit out in the sun and listen.
If I can stop one heart from breaking
by Emily Dickinson
If I can stop one heart from breaking,
I shall not live in vain;
If I can ease one life the aching,
Or cool one pain,
Or help one fainting robin
Unto his nest again,
I shall not live in vain.
The Tiger
by Nael, age 6
The tiger
He destroyed his cage
Yes
YES
The tiger is out
The Opposite of Loneliness by Marina Keegan
It starts like this …
We don’t have a word for the opposite of loneliness, but if we did, I could say that’s what I want in life. What I’m grateful and thankful to have found at Yale, and what I’m scared of losing when we wake up tomorrow and leave this place.
It’s not quite love and it’s not quite community; it’s just this feeling that there are people, an abundance of people, who are in this together. Who are on your team. When the check is paid and you stay at the table. When it’s four a.m. and no one goes to bed. That night with the guitar. That night we can’t remember. That time we did, we went, we saw, we laughed, we felt. The hats.
The rest can be found here.
Tomatoes
by Shane Koyczan
Youtube video or Genius Lyrics
Untitled
by a friend of a friend
I could not stay another day
To love. to laugh, to work or play
Tasks left undone must stay that way
And if my parting has left a void, then fill it with remembered Joy
Quotes
Don’t cry because it’s over. Smile because it happened. – Dr. Seuss
And God said ‘love your enemy,’ and I obeyed Him and loved myself. – Khalil Gibran