Life inVerse
Excerpts from poems published in
The Beautiful Truth that move us.
On World Poetry Day, The Beautiful Truth is recognising and celebrating the power that poets hold to craft meaning and evoke emotion in just a few words. These excerpts from poems featured in The Beautiful Truth magazine take readers on a journey through hoping, being, noticing and becoming.
Hoping
Hope sustains our everyday being and is the catalyst for our pushing through. These poets clear the paths in front of them, little by little, just enough to see one foot in front of the other. Just enough to keep going, with hope.
“Hope has holes
in its pockets.
It leaves little
crumb trails
so that we,
when anxious,
can follow it.”
Excerpt from Hope
Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer
Issue 02
“Hope is the thing with feathers
That perches in the soul
And sings the tune without the words
And never stops at all.”
Excerpt from Hope is the thing with feathers
Emily Dickinson
Issue 02
“Knowing what you love
will always trump
knowing what you
Hate.”
Excerpt from Nejma
Nayyirah Waheed
Issue 04
Being
What does it mean to be human? These authors argue the most critical part of our existence is human connection, simply being with others. It’s these ephemeral moments of kindness when we’re reminded of humanity and its nature, complex yet ever-so-ordinary.
“We have so little of each other, now. So far
from tribe and fire. Only these brief moments of exchange.
What if they are the true dwelling of the holy, these
fleeting temples we make together when we say, “Here,
have my seat,” “Go ahead–you first,” “I like your hat.””
Excerpt from Small Kindnesses
Danusha Laméris
Issue 06
“Put down the weight of your aloneness and ease into
the conversation. The kettle is singing
even as it pours you a drink, the cooking pots
have left their arrogant aloofness and
seen the good in you at last. All the birds
and creatures of the world are unutterably
themselves. Everything is waiting for you.”
Excerpt from Everything is Waiting for You
David Whyte
Issue 02
“The people you love
become ghosts inside
of you and like this
you keep them alive”
People you love, Geneva 2010
Robert Montgomery
Issue 04
Noticing
Do you ever wonder about what goes un-wondered about? Or seek to observe the un-observed? Do what’s never been done? It’s this inherent curiosity that feeds the soul, keeps us exploring and noticing what we may not have noticed before.
“To see a world in a grain of sand
And heaven in a wild flower,
Hold infinity in the palm of your hand,
And eternity for an hour.”
Excerpt from Auguries of Innocence
William Blake
Issue 06
“They live wondering
If they are the only ones, knowing only the wish to know,
And the great black distance they—we—flicker in.”
Excerpt from My God, It’s Full of Stars
Tracy K. Smith
Issue 02
“Everything in the city
is perfect the voices in
the streets are sacred
music and the streets
belong to no one”
Istanbul poem, Istanbul 2011
Robert Montgomery
Issue 04
Becoming
To embody a brighter future, we must grow from our pasts. These authors inspire reflection and call upon us to become a force for good. This call to action comes with a drive to become better versions of ourselves, for ourselves, but also for the greater good. These recognise that transformation doesn’t happen overnight; it’s a relational process.
“A long age
Passed. When at last we knew how little
Would survive us—how little we had mended
Or built that was not now lost—something
Large and old awoke. And then our singing
Brought on a different manner of weather.”
Excerpt from An Old Story
Tracy K. Smith
Issue 03
“We, this people, on a small and lonely planet
Traveling through casual space
Past aloof stars, across the way of indifferent suns
To a destination where all signs tell us
It is possible and imperative that we learn
A brave and startling truth.”
Excerpt from A Brave and Startling Truth
Maya Angelou
Issue 04
“What would happen if we used our bodies to bargain
for the safety of others, for earth,
if we declared a clean night, if we stopped being terrified,
if we launched our demands into the sky, made ourselves so big
people could point to us with the arrows they make in their minds,
rolling their trash bins out, after all of this is over?”
Excerpt from Dead Stars
Ada Limón
Issue 03
“What would it mean to live
in a city whose people were changing
each other’s despair into hope? –
You yourself must change it.”
Excerpt from Dreams Before Waking
Adrienne Rich
Issue 05
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