December 26, 2012: Kindness

INTRO:

It seems fitting that if I am to start a daily blog about the healing power of poetry, that this blog starts with a poem about loss, brokenness, sorrow, and personal transformation.

TODAY'S POEM:    Kindness
WORDSMITH:         Naomi Shihab Nye (1952 - Present)
SOURCE:              The Words Under the Words: Selected Poems

Kindness

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 mail letters and
purchase 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 every where
like a shadow or a friend.


QUERIES:

1. Nye suggests that loss and suffering are necessary in order to understand what kindness really is and why kindness is fundamental to living a full life. To what extent to you agree and disagree with this premise?

2. Nye uses the word "kindness" in her poem. Are there other words that can be substituted for "kindness" that would make this poem resonate with you more? What are these words? In what ways do these other words help the poem become a better "fit" for you and your experiences?

3. If someone asked you to defend the use of the word "kindness" in this poem, what would you say?

4. If someone was to ask people who know you, would they describe you as a "kind" person? In answering this question, how do you feel about your response?

5. How has the kindness or lack of kindness of others impacted your life?

6. Are you kind to yourself? What does being kind to yourself look like in everyday life?

7. If you knew of a dear friend who had recently suffered significant loss and is still suffering, would you share this poem with them today? What could be the possible benefits and the possible drawbacks?

8. Free response: write anything you want to with regard to this poem.