Kindness/Connection

Athens, Georgia

September 30, 2023

When I recently hosted Dan Maxey's monthly book group meeting, we shared and discussed poems from an anthology edited by James Crews: "Healing the Divide – Poems of Kindness and Connection." This is an uplifting collection, a salve for our times. Some of my favorite poems in this collection include:

Fund Drive, by Terri Kirby Erickson

Summer Mowing, by Jennifer Gray

When I Taught Her How to Tie Her Shoes, by Penny Harter

Small Kindnesses, by Danusha Lameris

The Hundred Names of Love, by Annie Lighthart

To Paula in Late Spring, by W.S. Merwin

For My Daughter, by Marjorie Saiser

Mother Talks Back to the Monster, by Carrie Shipers

I thought it would be a good idea to supplement this book with more poems of kindness and compassion as I run across them. Here are some:

The Wheel Revolves, by Kenneth Rexroth

Elegy for a Walnut Tree, by W.S. Merwin

With Emma at the Ladies-Only Swimming Pool on Hampstead Heath, by Linda Gregerson

Kindness, by Naomi Shihab Nye

If You Knew, by Ellen Bass

For the Sake of Strangers, by Dorianne Laux

Finally, here are some of my own poems that fit in this category:

Grandpa Gilmore Left Me a Poem
To My Two Year Old Daughter a Quarter Century Later 
Cathedral Dreams in Salt and Sand

Ladies of the Lake

Egyptian Sunrise

Jessica's Blessing

The Diminutive of Grace

Stumbling Toward a Brampton Manor

Prayer at Forty Thousand Feet

I plan to add to the lists of poems on this page from time to time. I encourage your to leave a comment with some of your own recommendations in the comment section.

Thanks,

Bob Ambrose

September 30, 2023