...as we anticipate with hope, the coming of a new year

If this is not a poem for NOW, as we anticipate with hope, the coming of a new year... well, I don't know what is.

We Are of a Tribe 
by Albert Rios
From American Life in Poetry by Ted Kooser, U.S. Poet Laureate

We plant seeds in the ground
And dreams in the sky,
 
Hoping that, someday, the roots of one
Will meet the upstretched limbs of the other.
 
It has not happened yet.
We share the sky, all of us, the whole world:
 
Together, we are a tribe of eyes that look upward,
Even as we stand on uncertain ground.
 
The earth beneath us moves, quiet and wild,
Its boundaries shifting, its muscles wavering.
 
The dream of sky is indifferent to all this,
Impervious to borders, fences, reservations.
 
The sky is our common home, the place we all live.
There we are in the world together.
 
The dream of sky requires no passport.
Blue will not be fenced. Blue will not be a crime.
 
Look up. Stay awhile. Let your breathing slow.
Know that you always have a home here.

Comments

[Janet Ghio]

Beautiful. Thanks for sharing this.

[joan]

So very perfect.

[jacki long]

Lovely. Thank you, Carol.

[Sharron]

I just loved this poem... do you get the Monday poems from Ted Kooser too? Always nice to find in the mail...xox

[Carol]

Sharron, YES! I love getting a poem in the mail. I look forward to it each week. Carol

[Sharron]

You might like Tracy K Smith’s ‘ the slowdown’ program/email... she chooses a poem each weekday morning... and the best part is you can listen if you want, she reads in a lovely straightforward voice. It’s an American Public Media production. I’m a fan of Smith, her own writing is terrific, and she was also poet laureate recently. xox.
p.s. doesn’t Cazadero look wonderful?

[carol]

Thanks for the tip about The Slowdown Sharron... and yes, Cazadero looks marvelous!