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Muddy
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Muddy is offline
UK
Joined: Sep 2015
Posts: 31,286
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24-09-2020, 08:26 AM
1

Kindness a poem

Heard this today



Kindness
Naomi Shihab Nye - 1952-






Before you know what kindness really is
you must lose things,
feel the future dissolve in a moment
like salt in a weakened broth.
What you held in your hand,
what you counted and carefully saved,
all this must go so you know
how desolate the landscape can be
between the regions of kindness.
How you ride and ride
thinking the bus will never stop,
the passengers eating maize and chicken
will stare out the window forever.

Before you learn the tender gravity of kindness
you must travel where the Indian in a white poncho
lies dead by the side of the road.
You must see how this could be you,
how he too was someone
who journeyed through the night with plans
and the simple breath that kept him alive.

Before you know kindness as the deepest thing inside,
you must know sorrow as the other deepest thing.
You must wake up with sorrow.
You must speak to it till your voice
catches the thread of all sorrows
and you see the size of the cloth.
Then it is only kindness that makes sense anymore,
only kindness that ties your shoes
and sends you out into the day to gaze at bread,
only kindness that raises its head
from the crowd of the world to say
It is I you have been looking for,
and then goes with you everywhere
like a shadow or a friend.
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24-09-2020, 09:38 AM
2

Re: Kindness a poem

Muddy, That is a very moving, poignant poem...As l read the poem, l felt l was on that bus, just looking out of the window oblivious to everything else going on in the world..
Then the image of the Indian in a white poncho lying dead in the road, jolts you into the reality of life and how fortunate you are.

We should spread the kindness whilst we can and never expect anything in return...
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24-09-2020, 09:44 AM
3

Re: Kindness a poem

What a beautiful poem Muddy, and Art, your words ring so true. We should indeed try to be kind to everyone, it costs nothing and can mean so much to the person on the receiving end.
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God's own county!
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24-09-2020, 09:45 AM
4

Re: Kindness a poem

What a thought provoking poem, thank you Muddy
 

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