Arts Are for Everyone

I'm no poet, but sometimes trying our hand at the arts helps us to grow. I've recently discovered the glory of meditative coloring (great for easing me into bedtime!), and one of my students today showed me a number of her own poems and some slam poets she enjoys. It reminded me of a poem that I wrote as a way to process what was happening in America two years ago.

We are all Trayvon Martin

Vulnerable to the pain and prejudice engrained in our society

We are all the Zimmerman jurors

Forced to navigate a game we just want out of

We are all Barack Obama

Trying to make good on promises we have discovered are out of our control

But we are also all Pope Francis

With the power to shift the conversation to what matters

And we are all Mother Teresa

With the knowledge that our love can make a difference

And we are all Nelson Mandela

With the capacity to reshape everything by standing proudly in the strength of peace

We are made of joys and sorrows

We must honor both the victim and the hero within ourselves

In order to, as Gandhi asked,

Be the Change we wish to see in the world