Today our focus is on reading and sharing words. Words of wisdom, of reality, of hope, poignant words, and words to inspire and motivate. To do this, we’ve selected a few poems we feel have some very timely advice and strong messages at their core.
The Taming of the Flu
By Martin Orrell, written 21 March 2020
We poets write from heart and soul Of terrors, torments, something droll Or twist up words to make them fit To take some liberty with it
But who’d have thought this one month past That every thing would change so fast Of all the things that could inspire us I’d never guess coronavirus
From wild life in market place To wash your hands don’t touch your face From lung infection something vague To Covid19 modern plague
Now congregation is a risk And lockdown’s happened rather brisk We’ve herd immunity debate Or shall we stay and isolate
As countries shut their borders tight Should we wait or flee from flight As hospitals run out of beds How long before we call the feds
Despite the fear bleak times like these Italians sing from balconies Despite the cold pandemic fact I am still moved by each kind act
Whilst this strange nasty virus fights us There’s less divides and more unites us If food or face mask do we ration
People still shine in their compassion
We cannot bear our loved ones dead Yet can’t survive on endless dread For we must live and love together And we shall overcome this weather
Measured out in months or days No hands to hold? then Namastes There’s time to hope there’s time to mourn Then follows after dusk, the dawn
And someday we shall rise anew Beyond the taming of the flu
Still I Rise by Maya Angelou
You may write me down in history With your bitter, twisted lies, You may trod me in the very dirt But still, like dust, I’ll rise.
Does my sassiness upset you? Why are you beset with gloom? ’Cause I walk like I’ve got oil wells Pumping in my living room. Just like moons and like suns, With the certainty of tides, Just like hopes springing high, Still I’ll rise.
Did you want to see me broken? Bowed head and lowered eyes? Shoulders falling down like teardrops, Weakened by my soulful cries?
Does my haughtiness offend you? Don’t you take it awful hard ’Cause I laugh like I’ve got gold mines Diggin’ in my own backyard.
You may shoot me with your words, You may cut me with your eyes, You may kill me with your hatefulness, But still, like air, I’ll rise.
Does my sexiness upset you? Does it come as a surprise That I dance like I’ve got diamonds At the meeting of my thighs?
Out of the huts of history’s shame I rise Up from a past that’s rooted in pain
I rise I’m a black ocean, leaping and wide, Welling and swelling I bear in the tide.
Leaving behind nights of terror and fear I rise Into a daybreak that’s wondrously clear I rise Bringing the gifts that my ancestors gave, I am the dream and the hope of the slave. I rise I rise I rise.
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