Thursday, October 31, 2013

Kindness


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 everywhere
like a shadow or a friend.

*
Naomi Shihab Nye


Painting Circle of Light by Sandra Bierman



2 comments:

  1. This is truly a beautiful and touching poem! Naomi Shihab Nye writes about experiencing loss, death and sorrow and by experiencing these things we begin to appreciate kindness more and more. It seems to be a quality that we treasure as we mature and consciously or unconsciously feel and recognize the intrinsic oneness of life. Our own suffering provides us with the depth to feel for others. When we begin to feel this oneness we suffer when others suffer, and we increasingly become more compassionate, empathetic and loving with all life. Kindness is compassion in action. Thank you for sharing this poem!

    ReplyDelete
  2. "Kindness is compassion in action"..

    Such a beautiful truth, dear Joseph. Thank you!

    ReplyDelete