Think what I would think
We're running and standing in The Other's shoe in this issue of your weekly dose of fresh poetry #134
When my runs
don't go as expected
I sometimes feel self-conscious. But then
I think what I would think:
you're a star!
Admittedly, there’s a little too much of me. And I don’t exercise enough. I’m not a vain person, at least not overly, but I do often feel not fit enough. So, I try to run. When I keep it up, I progress quite quickly, but when I stop for a while, my fitness takes a hit. I am now at a point where I am picking up the exercise again. So when I go out in the park, I feel slow and old and heavy. That can suddenly make me feel self-conscious. Normally not really my thing. I tend to care (too) little about what others think of me. But when it hits, it’s a strange feeling. It also is a very human feeling.
Before it can get the better of me, I think about what I think when I see someone who looks maybe a bit slow and heavy exercising in the park: “Wow, good for you. You made a positive choice for your health. You are a star!”
Your assignment this week: think positively about you and the world around you. Let me know what great things you found when you did that.
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The poetics of life
Although it’s often good to stop and think what you would think, it’s also good to listen to The Other, especially if you don’t agree. It’s easy to put someone in some adversarial category and dismiss their opinion because they belong to another group, but that does not help us in any real way. It’s much harder to reach out and talk to The Other. Like Dylan Marron has done, as he speaks about in this beautiful TED talk.
Find the freshest on-chain poetry, every two weeks, in the On-chain poetry digest.
Poetry elsewhere
Sunflowers can inspire hope and a sense of sunny warmness. But lately they have also become a symbol for a war that should not have been started. This poem, by crys, is a strong reminder of the pain war causes. Please read Helios.
This publication aims to promote empathy in the world through sharing poetry. By reading poems from all corners, we get to see the world through the eyes of others. If we focus on what connects us, on the love people want to share, we can truly see The Other. In the Substack community, I came across a very kind person, S.E. Reid. She is an extremely generous and loving lady. This week she shows that with this poem, A Celtic Prayer for Ramadan:
Do you know that saying about that mighty pen? The one where it is stronger than a sword? Play with that last word and you find words. Words are mighty, let’s use them to spread love. To understand their power, read this poem A Book is a Loaded Gun by Sherman Alexie:
