My Mother’s voice echoes in my head and my heart: “If you can’t say something nice, don’t say anything at all.” She said this to me many times over my growing up years. When I was ranting about a teacher who I felt was unfair. When a friend perhaps was not seeing things the way I did. When there was a situation that caused me to wear my self-righteousness like a cloak. All these years, these words are still imprinted in some deep place within me.
Which is why I have had difficulty coming to these pages and why I can find myself biting my tongue or just feeling exhausted is certain conversations. The state of the world and what is happening in our country offends, insults, assaults, angers and leaves me with an ability to say anything ‘nice.’ I have found I don’t trust myself to be the voice of civility that I long to be and about which I would want to rail against so many others.
In saying all this, I want to be clear that I think there are definitely times to say things that are not too ‘nice.’ There are times when it is important to stand up against a bully, against unkindness, against injustice. My Mother’s words, I believe, were meant to cause me to pause and be reflective as to what might be the wisest choice of words. I simply find those difficult to give birth to these days.
But then I realized that it is April, a month designated as National Poetry Month. Poetry. Over the years I have come to believe that poetry is a healing balm, that its sparseness has the ability to cut through all the rhetoric and pompous speech that can slash the soul. While the words, the ‘nice’ words that are more difficult to conjure may be living in some dark corner of my spirit, the poets will almost always come through.
So, here is a poem by James Crews from a lovely little book entitled The Path to Kindness: Poems of Connection and Joy.
Some days it feels like a foreign language
I’m asked to practice, with new words
for happiness, work, and love. I’m still learning
how to say:a cup of tea for no reason,
what to call the extra honey I drizzle in,
how to label the relentless urge to do more
and more as useless.And how to translate
the heart’s pounding message when it comes:
enough, enough. This morning, I search for words
to capture the glimmering sun as it lifts
above the mountains, clouds already closing in
as fat droplets of rain darken the deck.
I’m learning to call this stillness self-care too,
just standing here, as goldfinches scatter up
from around the feeder like broken pieces
of bright yellow stained-glass, reassembling
in the sheltering arms of a maple.
If your heart is also crying ‘enough, enough,’ perhaps turning to poetry might be the antidote you have longed for. There are no goldfinches at the feeder yet but gazing on the color yellow might also do the trick. In the meantime, Happy Poetry Month!
