The world is full of magic things, patiently waiting for our senses to grow sharper.
– W. B. Yeats
Good morning, friends and readers. I hope that you have slept soundly and are enjoying a lovely Sunday. Here at Adulting – Second Half, Sundays are devoted to poetry. Why is poetry important? Alice Osborn says it best, I think: “Poetry is so important because it helps us understand and appreciate the world around us. Poetry’s strength lies in its ability to shed a “sideways” light on the world, so the truth sneaks up on you. No question about it. Poetry teaches us how to live.” I think that as the Yeats quote from above says, the world is full of magic things. Poetry helps us to sharpen our sensitivities to all of the magic surrounding us.
The inaugural poem this year will be written and read by a 22-year-old poet named Amanda Gorman. She is the youngest poet to ever write and recite an inaugural poem. I cannot wait to read it. This is the poem that Robert Frost recited at John F. Kennedy’s inauguration:
“The Gift Outright”
Poem recited at John F. Kennedy’s Inauguration
by Robert Frost
The land was ours before we were the land’s
She was our land more than a hundred years
Before we were her people. She was ours
In Massachusetts, in Virginia,
But we were England’s, still colonials,
Possessing what we still were unpossessed by,
Possessed by what we now no more possessed.
Something we were withholding made us weak
Until we found out that it was ourselves
We were withholding from our land of living,
And forthwith found salvation in surrender.
Such as we were we gave ourselves outright
(The deed of gift was many deeds of war)
To the land vaguely realizing westward,
But still unstoried, artless, unenhanced,
Such as she was, such as she will become.
I would like to suggest that we all take some time today to play around with our own words, and to write our own inaugural poems. It would be an excellent way to express and to discharge all of the tumultuous thoughts and feelings that we may be having, about what is going on in our country, during these turbulent times. If you are so inclined, I would love to see your poems in my Comments section. You, my readers, are a blessing to me, to all of those who love you, and to yourselves, if you are doing a good job of self care. Do a good job of being the blessing that you are to the world!! Do a good job of just being “you”! That is your greatest offering to the world.
Are you passing on love, or are you passing on pain? Heal your pain and pass on love.