(Written for my art students at Howard Street Charter School, 2012)
The color of your heart is deep and wide–
It gathers all around me
And fills my days with laughter rich
And teaches me to be
More colorful myself, spilling all
My deepest hues
(Those I tend to hide inside)
Instead of showing them, like you.
Together we can paint the world to
Create a masterpiece
Of love and harmony and then
Our world can be at peace.
“It is legitimate to crawl after the wings are broken.” William Stafford
To have wings is to have hope.
So much like a bird,
hope soars overhead, urging
us all (those of us broken and hopeless)
to look up; look out of ourselves.
But it seems too easy to look in
and see the ragged absence of wings.
Though some of us do crawl.
I crawl, dragging myself forward.
The shadow in my path, gone first,
then returning.
I look up–
There is a surge of joy in me!
To see hope like this is to see the future.
I wonder what the sky thinks
of seeing her reflection in all
the tiny mirrors of the world;
Does she say to herself, when
she notices how unkempt she looks
on a February morning,
“What a night!”
Jaqui Eicher 