The word ‘poet’ comes from the Greek word poiētēs, meaning ‘maker’, and as Satish Kumar says: “To be a poet is to be a maker. A maker with our own heart and with our own imagination. Poetry is not only the beautiful words we put on a page. If we make something like a poem in our life, we too can live like poets.”

World Poetry Day is a time to celebrate this idea—to recognise poetry’s power to distill meaning, emotion, and experience into a few words. These excerpts from poems featured in The Beautiful Truth explore hope, community, and the deeper truths that shape our lives.

Interconnectedness & Belonging

Here are some of our favorite excerpts that remind us of our potential to be connected through words and stories.

Excerpt from My God, It’s Full of Stars
Tracy K. Smith
Issue 02

“Perhaps the great error is believing we’re alone,
That the others have come and gone—a momentary blip—
When all along, space might be choc-full of traffic”

Excerpt from Everything is Waiting for You
David Whyte
Issue 02

“To feel abandoned is to deny the intimacy of your surroundings. Surely,
even you, at times, have felt the grand array;
the swelling presence, and the chorus, crowding
out your solo voice.”

Excerpt from Jasmine
Jane Hirshfield
Issue 04

“And all our anxieties and terrors,
nights of sleeplessness,
griefs,
will appear as they truly are—

Stumbling, delirious bees in the tea scent of jasmine.”

Transformation

These are some of the words that inspire us to grow, today and everyday.

Excerpt from Manifesto: The Mad Farmer Liberation Front
Wendell Berry
Issue 02

“Be like the fox
who makes more tracks than necessary,
some in the wrong direction.
Practice resurrection.”

Excerpt from Joy
Thomas Centolella
Issue 03

“Joy is simple, unassuming.
Red tulips on their green stems.
Early spring vegetables, bright in the pan.
The primary colors of a child’s painting,
the first lessons, all over again.”

Excerpt from The Place Where We Are Right
Yehuda Amichai
Issue 05

“But doubts and loves
dig up the world
like a mole, a plow.”

Collective Responsibility

These excerpts touch on collective responsibility which, like poetry, emphasises how something small can have a strong impact.

Excerpt from Dead Stars
Ada Limón
Issue 03

“What if we stood up with our synapses and flesh and said, No.
No, to the rising tides.
Stood for the many mute mouths of the sea, of the land?”

Excerpt from Dreams Before Waking
Adrienne Rich
Issue 05

“what would it mean to stand on the first
page of the end of despair?”

Hope & Persistence

Here are some excerpts from poems that allow us to experience hope, as well as understand it.

Excerpt from Hope
Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer
Issue 02

“All roads
begin with one
foot in front
of the other.”

Excerpt from An Old Story
Tracy K. Smith
Issue 03

“Then animals long believed gone crept down
From trees. We took new stock of one another.
We wept to be reminded of such color”

Excerpt from Anthem
Leonard Cohen
Issue 03

“There is a crack, a crack in everything
That’s how the light gets in”

Peace & Community

These are some words that allow us to be reminded of the community we are surrounded by.

Excerpt from Nejma
Nayyirah Waheed
Issue 04

“knowing what you love
will always trump
knowing what you
Hate.”

Excerpt from A Brave and Startling Truth
Maya Angelou
Issue 04

“And when we come to it
To the day of peacemaking
When we release our fingers
From fists of hostility
And allow the pure air to cool our palms”