Poetry month is coming to an end, and while some treat it as another month and others treat it as a month of reflecting on literature, what does this month actually signify?
Poetry month was founded in 1998 aiming to encourage reading, writing, and teaching poetry in schools and communities. It is not just about encouragement though, there are festivals and workshops all across the country, aiming to reflect a wide range of perspectives and experiences.
For me personally, poetry is a great way to help me navigate complex emotions, or just provide comfort! If you don’t write poems, I do encourage you to try it out! It doesn’t have to always rhyme; it just has to reflect your emotions and thoughts or ideas. All you need is a pencil and paper, and from there, you just pour out your emotions. Give it a try, and if it’s not for you, at least you gave it a shot! Poetry, and just contemplating life in general, helps me realize how lucky I am to live in a place like Canada. So, for this month, I would love to share a poem on gratitude.
A Poem of Gratitude
By: Devan Grewal
The world is kind of a mess if you look at it too long,
We want things to get right, even though they get wrong.
It is easy to get lost in the things that we lack,
To keep all our failures in a pile on our back.
We look at the world through a screen and a lens,
Constantly comparing our lives to our friends.
But we need to see what really matters at the core:
Being thankful and remembering what we are grateful for.
Gratitude really isn’t just saying a word,
Or repeating a phrase that you have heard.
It’s being able to recognize the things that you’ve got,
Being happy for what you have, and not caring for “what’s not.”
When you focus on what’s working, your perspective starts to shift,
You start to realize that just being here is a gift.