Kindness
Before you know what kindness really is
you must lose things,
feel the future dissolve in a moment
like salt in a weakened broth.
What you held in your hand,
what you counted and carefully saved,
all this must go so you know
how desolate the landscape can be
between the regions of kindness.
How you ride and ride
thinking the bus will never stop,
the passengers eating maize and chicken
will stare out the window forever.
Before you learn the tender gravity of kindness
you must travel where the Indian in a white poncho
lies dead by the side of the road.
You must see how this could be you,
how he too was someone
who journeyed through the night with plans
and the simple breath that kept him alive.
Before you know kindness as the deepest thing inside,
you must know sorrow as the other deepest thing.
You must wake up with sorrow.
You must speak to it till your voice
catches the thread of all sorrows
and you see the size of the cloth.
Then it is only kindness that makes sense anymore,
only kindness that ties your shoes
and sends you out into the day to gaze at bread,
only kindness that raises its head
from the crowd of the world to say
It is I you have been looking for,
and then goes with you everywhere
like a shadow or a friend.
■
Before you know what kindness really is
you must lose things,
feel the future dissolve in a moment
like salt in a weakened broth.
What you held in your hand,
what you counted and carefully saved,
all this must go so you know
how desolate the landscape can be
between the regions of kindness.
How you ride and ride
thinking the bus will never stop,
the passengers eating maize and chicken
will stare out the window forever.
Before you learn the tender gravity of kindness
you must travel where the Indian in a white poncho
lies dead by the side of the road.
You must see how this could be you,
how he too was someone
who journeyed through the night with plans
and the simple breath that kept him alive.
Before you know kindness as the deepest thing inside,
you must know sorrow as the other deepest thing.
You must wake up with sorrow.
You must speak to it till your voice
catches the thread of all sorrows
and you see the size of the cloth.
Then it is only kindness that makes sense anymore,
only kindness that ties your shoes
and sends you out into the day to gaze at bread,
only kindness that raises its head
from the crowd of the world to say
It is I you have been looking for,
and then goes with you everywhere
like a shadow or a friend.
■
Hello Friends,
“Kindness” can be found in Words Under the Words: Selected Poems (1995) by Naomi Shihab Nye — a poet who has been featured several times before, including:
Poem-A-Day April 8, 2017:
“Famous” by Naomi Shihab Nye
Poem-A-Day April 29, 2016:
“Burning the Old Year” by Naomi Shihab Nye
Poem-A-Day April 17, 2015:
“Making a Fist” by Naomi Shihab Nye
Poem-A-Day April 2, 2014:
“Trying to Name What Doesn’t Change” by Naomi Shihab Nye
I won’t say this about every single poem I’ve ever featured, but these four in particular are each very powerful and absolutely worth your time to give a read.
For another take on “you must lose things,” see also Elizabeth Bishop’s “One Art” — which I maybe didn’t explain that well in this post from 2008 (there’s so much more that could be said about this poem!), but here it is anyway.
Enjoy.
— Ellen