Poetry Friday this week is hosted by Donna at Mainely Write
So many people shared Emma Lazarus’s iconic poem this week, The New Colossus. It was a reminder of the power of poetry, of words put together on a page with intention and passion. I was reminded of a favorite anthology of mine, This Same Sky: A Collection of Poems From Around The World, by Naomi Shihab Nye.
If you are looking for inspiration today, check out this podcast with Nye from On Being with Krista Tippett, Your Life is a Poem.
The poem I want to share this week comes from the anthology by poet Zia Hyder, and is a reminder of our likenesses and differences in this great, big world:
UNDER THIS SKY
There’s an enormous comfort knowing
we all live under this same sky,
whether in New York or Dhaka,
we see the same sun and same moon.
When it is night in New York,
the sun shines in Dhaka,
but that doesn’t matter.
Flowers that blossom here in spring
are unknown in meadows of distant Bengal —
that too doesn’t matter.
There’s no rainy season here —
the peasant in Bengal welcomes the new crop
with homemade sweets
while here, winter brings mountains of snow.
No one here knows Grandmother’s hand-sewn quilt —
even that doesn’t matter.
There’s an enormous comfort knowing
we all live under this same sky….. (read the rest of the poem in the anthology)
Have a poetic weekend!
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