Latest / Legacy Living with Dr. Gloria Burgess / What Good Is a Poem? | Episode #391

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What Good Is a Poem? | Episode #391 · Legacy Living with Dr. Gloria Burgess

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Hello, and welcome to today's show, Legacy Living, Make Your Life Count.
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I'm your host, Doctor Gloria. Gloria Burgess, passionate inspirational speaker,
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author, poet, and entrepreneur. Welcome to Legacy Living, Make your Life
0:42
Count. I'm delighted that you joined me today. I want to give a
0:48
big thank you to those of you who are listening, and here's a great
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big shout out to all of you listening around the world. I'm delighted and
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so grateful that you tuned in. You hope you're enjoying a fabulous day today
1:03
and that you're having a fantastic week, because you know what, in the
1:07
grand song of the universe, life is very very short. It's short and
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oh so sweet and precious. So I hope you're making a difference in your
1:21
own life, because when you do, you also make a difference in someone
1:26
else's life. A lot of folks want to make their life count for something,
1:34
and they ask me, Doctor Gloria, how do you do that.
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Well, it's simple, it's very simple. You make your life count day
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by day, step by step, moment by moment, every single day.
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Three sixty five, twenty four to seven. That's what legacy living Make your
1:57
Life Count is all about. You can learn more about legacy living Make your
2:04
Life Count by visiting the Gloria Burgess website. That's g l O r I
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A b as in boy you r g E s s dot com. The
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Gloria Burgess website again, that's g l O r I A b as in
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boy you r g E s s dot com, or by visiting Facebook and
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you can find me on Facebook at Facebook dot com. Forward slash b r
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G l O r I A b U r g e s S p h
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D forward slash. Okay, all right, today I want to talk with
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you about the power of a poem. That's right, the power of a
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poem. Can I just tell you something? This is going to be a
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great show today. You don't want to miss a single word. So grab
3:08
your earbuds, put on your walking shoes, or find yourself a comfortable chair,
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make yourself a nice cup of tea or coffee, or pour yourself a
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nice cool glass of water. We're going to have a great time. Now.
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Before I jump into today's topic, I want to take a moment to
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welcome you. If you're just joining us, I'm your host, Doctor Gloria,
3:36
and this is legacy living Make your life count. I'd like to extend
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a special welcome to those of you who are joining my podcast, or if
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you're joining Talk Network Radio for the very first time, You're in for a
3:52
real treat. I'm excited to have you listening in today, and I'm deeply
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honored that you've allowed me to be part of your day so you can be
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inspired by the ideas and resources to make your life count. Today's podcast is
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all about the power of a poem. Now what do I mean by that?
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Does a poem really have power? Well, of course it does.
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Inside the words, inside the rhythms, inside the music of poems. Inside
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that's where the power resides. Poems offer us so much. They can be
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a bridge, the kind of bridge that transports you from wherever you are into
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another place altogether, a bridge that opens you to a new understanding of who
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you are and your calling in the world. A poem can be a bridge
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that connects us one heart to another, that connects us across countries and across
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cultures and our own self imposed constraints. Poems also have the power to help
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us bridge our internal world with the external world. David White, one of
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my favorite poets, talks about this power in this way. He says,
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the poet lives and writes at the frontier, the frontier between deep internal experience
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and the revelations of the outer world. There is no going back. Once
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this frontier has been reached, a new territory is visible, and what has
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said cannot be unsaid. Poetry, he says, is a break for freedom.
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I just love that now when you think about it. Poems are also
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said to be dangerous. Now why is that? Because a good poem is
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like a dare. A good poem dares us to hit the pause button.
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That's right now. In today's fast paced world, where speed is valued and
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time is money, poetry invites us to slow down, to pause, to
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walk, not run, to pay attention, to not give in to the
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inauthentic and the superficial. A good poem dares us to see through the eyes
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of another, to walk a few steps or maybe even a few miles,
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in someone else's shoes, in someone else's experience. A good poem dares us
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to love what is unlovely, love what is forsaken or forgotten, or maybe
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even turning the mirror towards ourselves. You know, sometimes we feel a little
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unlovely, forsaken and forgotten to A good poem dares us to not only love,
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but also to feel pain and loss and grief and loneliness. It dares
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us to let go of our strategic mind and to embrace the personal, the
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intimate, the necessary darkness and bleakness in our own and others' lives. You
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know what, A good poem dares us to be transformed? Now, if
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you like me, you really enjoy poetry, even if you don't really know
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why. And sometimes it's not important to know why. It's just important to
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enjoy the words, the rhythms, the music. So let's talk about that.
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Let's talk about the purpose of poetry, or more accurately, let's talk
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about the purposes, because poetry has many, many purposes, many many uses.
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So I want to begin by asking what difference, what difference can a
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poem make? Now that's a great question, isn't it. What difference can
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a poem make? For me? I can tell you that, without a
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shadow of a doubt, poetry has made a difference in my life. I
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know, I know a lot of folks say that, don't they why do
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I say it? Well, poetry made a difference in my life, but
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not just any kind of difference. It made a significant difference in my life.
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In fact, it would be accurate to say that poetry actually saved my
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life. That's right, now, How did that happen? Well, Poetry
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helped me connect the dots between my lived experience as a little black girl who
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was born in the rural south of the United States, someone who grew up
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surrounded by many, many people in what I call my personal village now.
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When I was a little girl, I looked daily into the face of my
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elders, all the elders in my personal village, who looked just like me,
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only older. Right, They had eyes like mine, and lifts like
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mine, and cheeks and hair like mine. Poetry was there for me when
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my family moved from my personal village from the deep South to the urban North.
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When I left that world of familiar faces and my personal village, what
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I left behind all the people who loved me, who cared for me,
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who wanted me. When I moved from that world of belonging into this new
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and unfamiliar world. Poetry was that bridge for me. It actually helped me
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connect the dots between what I had known and what was so new, so
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new and unfamiliar to me. You see, in this new world, I
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suddenly found myself surrounded by a sea of of white faces in my neighborhood,
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at the grocery store, at school. I mean, this was a totally
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new experience for me. It was what we call a culture shock. Only
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I didn't really even know what that meant back then. I mean, I
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had no language for what I was going through, no language for this new,
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very uncomfortable, unfamiliar world. But even though I didn't have language for
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it, I knew inside how I felt. And my feelings ranged from feeling
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scared and alone and out of place. They ranged from fear to sadness,
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sometimes from feeling afraid and lost to feelings of confusion and even anger. I
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didn't even know what I was angry about or who I was angry at.
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I just knew that I felt so alone. I felt like I didn't fit
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in. I felt like I didn't belong. I felt like no one outside
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of my family really cared for me. Now, as a ten year old,
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I didn't have the words that I now have as an adult, but
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what I did have was this sense of dread, the sense of lingering,
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doubt, of fear, of sadness, of insecurity, and feeling so so
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so alone. I knew that I was unanchored, adrift, and I felt
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as though I was thinking in this huge ocean that was way, way,
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way bigger than me. Again, without having all of those words for what
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I was going through at that time in my life, I felt that whatever
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was going on was way bigger than little old me, but I was powerless
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to do anything about it. I also knew that poems provided me with something
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to hold on to and away to hold on. I also had an incredible
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experience that changed everything. That's the experience that saved my life. I remember
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that moment in my life as if it happened just yesterday. I remember being
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in the sixth grade and my teacher, her name was Mary Jane Gillespie.
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My classmates and I called her Miss g. I remember one day, a
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day that started out like so many other days during recess. I was sitting
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inside while all the other kids were outside playing and enjoying themselves, playing teather
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ball or four square, or tag or soccer, or just hanging out together
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and laughing and talking, and I was sitting inside the room with my head
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down on my desk, having my own private little pity party. Right now,
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what was I doing. I was feeling alone and I was feeling sorry
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for myself. Now, when I was in grade school, the teachers still
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wore dresses or skirts, and they also wore high heels. They wore pumps.
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Okay, that was back in the day, right, So, this
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particular day, I was sitting in my classroom during recess. I had my
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head down at my desk, and then I remember hearing that click, click,
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click click of high heels and I knew right away it was Miss G
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by the sound of the clicks. Her footsteps got closer and closer to my
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desk, and then they just stopped. I remember hearing this little plunk of
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a sound and feeling a little gust of cool air as she put something on
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my desk beside my head. Then I heard the click, click click of
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her heels as she walked away and out of the clock classroom. As soon
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as I knew it was all clear, I popped my head up to see
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what Miss G had put on my desk. I was surprised to find that
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she had put a little book on my desk. Now, Miss g knew
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how much I loved to read, and she knew how much I loved poetry.
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And guess what, she had put a little book of poems on my
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desk. As I looked through it, I realized this was no ordinary book
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of poems. This was a book of poems by my favorite poet, Langston
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Hughes. The book was called The dream Keeper. I opened that little blue
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book and I just fell in love. Now why because this was the first
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time, inside of a classroom that I had held a book of poems or
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any other book that had pictures in it. Pictures of people who looked like
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me, people who had eyes like mine and lips like mine, people who
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looked out at me with love in their eyes, just like my mama and
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my daddy, just like the elders in my personal village. When I read
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the words, they had that swing and sway. They had the music and
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the rhythm. They had a dance like feeling that spoke to my heart and
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my soul. The words actually had the same kind of cadence of the words
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I heard at home and in my neighborhood and at church. Mercy. Now
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David White, the poet that I mentioned earlier, says there's no place like
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the House of belonging. We're gonna say that again, there is no place
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like the House of belonging. Can I just tell you something? He is
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absolutely right. This little blue book of poems called The dream Keeper was my
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house. It will filled with peeps from my family, peeps from my personal
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village, my village of belonging. What difference can a poem make? Here's
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the difference. Miss g thought she had given me a book of poems.
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But what she really gave me was a long drink of water for my withered
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little soul. What she really gave me was a lifeline, a lifeline to
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hold on to as I was swirling around and around in that big old sea
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of self doubt, as I was sinking in the sea of loneliness, she
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gave me a healthy dose of oxygen, a special kind of CPR that saved
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my life. What difference can a poem make for some poets, for some
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readers, for some listeners, poems or instruments for healing. When I work
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with students in the schools, I often use poetry as a way to help
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them find their own true voice and then to explore the layers of their voice.
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As a teenager, your job, your primary preoccupation and official occupation,
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is to discover who you really are, to find find out for yourself what
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you believe, to find out for yourself what you stand for, what you
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value Now. Sometimes I use poetry to help students discover more about themselves,
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as a pathway, as a bridge to explore their various identities and ways of
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making sense in a very complex world. I also use poems to help them
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slow down so they can pay attention to the world around them, not the
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virtual world of social media. I'm talking about the real world, the real
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world that is all around them, the real world that has real people with
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real problems just like they do right and also the world that has real people
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who are filled with love in their hearts. What difference can a poem make
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for young people? Poetry is the fastest way to move from not knowing who
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you are to knowing who you are. Poetry is a way to really pay
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attention to the world inside of you, and it's the same way for adults.
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A few months ago, I was talking to a cohort of executives talking
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with them about one of my favorite topics, leadership, looking through the lens
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of legacy. Now, during my time with that cohort of execs, I'd
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led them in a session where they could explore their values, explore their deeply
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held beliefs about leadership and the significance of their work. After the session,
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a gentleman came up and introduced himself. He said he was the founder and
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executive director of a nonprofit that provided programs and services for at risk youth.
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He then asked if I recognized him. I said no, should I?
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He said, Well, when we met the first time, you were in
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my class room. Humm, you were there as part of a big poetry
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project. Hum. He then went on to remind me that I had spent
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a week with his class as an artist in residence. He shared how my
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poetry had touched him and his students and what a difference that it made in
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his class room. Now, in his new role, he's using the arts,
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visual art, music movement, and poetry to engage youth in his community,
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and he asked if he could use some of my poetry as part of
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that project. Now, I share all of this with you, not to
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pat myself on the backward to impress you. I share it to impress upon
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you the power of poetry to make a difference in your life. So let
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me ask you that question again, what difference can a poem make? Well?
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For this executive director, he not only works in his own local community,
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he connects students at risk youth in his community with communities all over the
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world, because you know what, they're at risk youth in every single continent
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on the planet. What difference can a poem make? A poem could be
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a bridge. Right in my work with doctors and nurses and other healthcare providers,
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we turn to poetry to help them slow down and pay attention to their
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inner life. Now, you can just imagine how hectic life is in the
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emergency room in the er. Right, not just once in a while,
23:08
like when you have to take your daughter or son to the hospital because they
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stuck something in their ear, or they swallowed something they never should have put
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in their mouths in the first place. This is life in the er because
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it's your job. This is your world every single day. Well, can
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you imagine going into an er where the doctors aren't talking to the nurses,
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the nurses aren't talking to the doctors, and the folks on the night shift
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can't seem to get along with the folks on the day shift. Sounds kind
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of crazy, doesn't it. Well, that world is why folks call on
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me as a consultant or as a coach. They need help, and they
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need it fast, and they don't really know how to help themselves. I
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have to pinch myself because I get to work with folks who need the kind
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of CPR that only poetry can provide. We might begin our session with the
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sounds of music to help folks get in harmony with themselves, to help them
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slow down and pay attention to the rhythm that is closer to their own natural
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rhythm versus that fast paced, intense music of a typical emergency room. Right
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kind of like metallic rock. Okay, now, the music I'm talking about
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is sweet honey, It's jasmine or magnificent Magnolia. Okay. It's that fragrance
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found in the music, the tempo, the flow of language. It's been
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said that poetry, poetry is the best words in the best order. Let
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me tell you some thing. The right poem at the right time with the
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right people is a small dose of what matters. It's a small dose of
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what makes a difference. Just like a close friend, the kind of close
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friend you can call at three am in the morning, Yes right, and
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they don't hang up on you. The right poem at the right time,
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with the right people can be the difference that makes all the difference. Poetry
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has the power to awaken us, to shake us up, to shape us
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up, to entertain us, to educate us, to liberate us, to
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heal us, to build bridges where before there was only a loose array of
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stones along the road. Poetry also has the power to reimagine the unimaginable,
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to make tangible the intangible, to revisit history and arrest us with its industrious,
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divine and mysterious ways. Now, before I close today's podcast, I
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want to give a special shout out to a family of poets called kave Conom
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kave Conom. It's spelled c A V E like cave okay, conum c
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A N E M. Look them up kave Conom flatten okay And to call
26:47
kave Kanum and organization would be to tell only part of their glorious story,
26:53
to share only one of it its many many facets. Kave Conum is a
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color collective of poets and writers of the African diaspora, was founded in nineteen
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ninety six and since then they have rewritten the book so to speak. Okay,
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because of this amazing collective, we now have African American poets being recognized
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as US poet laureates. We now have African American poets winning major prizes and
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fellowships like the Lamont Prize awarded by the American Academy of Poets, like the
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Guggenheim Fellowship, Yes, even like the Pulitzer Prize. Right now, I
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have the good fortune of being a poetry fellow with this amazing collective called Kave
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Kanum, and in its relatively short history, it has effectively changed the face
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and dare I say, changed the very complexion of poetry in the US and
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beyond. Because of this incredible organization, we now have more African American poets
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and writers at the table. More of them at the table means that they
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have more decision making authority, which means that they can contribute to lifting up
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the voices of more poets and writers of the African diaspora and beyond. Okay,
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now, this phenomenon has quickened the pace of what was already occurring before
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the founding of Kabycanum. But I'm telling you it was at a pace that
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can only be described as glacial. Okay, talk about transformation, Talk about
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transformation, talk about the power of poetry. Now, before I close to
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day, I want to share a poem with you. It's one of my
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favorites and by my favorite Poetngston Hughes, and it's called Mother to Son.
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I want to dedicate this poem to a poet who is near and dear to
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me, and that's my mom. Now, I bet you didn't know my
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mom's a poet. Well, she doesn't write poems in the same way that
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I do, but she's a poet just the same. For as long as
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I've known her, my mom has lived her life as a poem, and
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now at the threshold of her ninth decade, she continues to do just that.
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So Mother to the person who has made an incredible and indelible difference in
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my life. This poem, which is all about making your life count,
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this poem is for you. This poem is called Mother to Son by Manston
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Hughes. Mother to Son, Life for me ain't been no crystal stair.
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It's had tacks in it and splinters and boards torn up and places with no
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carpet on the floor. Bear, But all the time eye's been a climbing
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on and reaching mandins and turning corners, and sometimes going in the dark where
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there ain't been no light. So boy, don't you turn back. Don't
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you set down on the steps, cause you find it's kind of hard.
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Don't you fall now? For I still go on, honey, I still
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climbing, And life for me ain't been no crystal stare. I just love
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this poem. For me, it's a testament to my elders, maybe to
31:33
your own elders, to people who had the grit and the determination and the
31:38
faith and the perseverance to just keep on keeping on. Thank you, Mom
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for making such a profound difference in my life. This poem is a reflection,
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a mirror of you. You've made a difference in my life every single
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day three sixty five twenty four seven, even now, even now, I
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think of you every day. I pray for you every day. I lift
32:15
you up every single day. Now. If you missed any part of this
32:27
week's podcast, or if you missed me last week. You can listen to
32:32
this podcast and others at your convenience. You can even listen on the go.
32:39
You can find me on iTunes, alexasoundcloudspreaker dot com, and many many
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more places. You can also listen in right here. Check it out at
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www dot talknetwork Radio dot com. Now, before I close today, I
33:00
want to thank each of you for tuning in and for allowing me to share
33:02
a bit about my journey with what legacy living is all about, not just
33:07
living and learning, but living and learning and serving so that you make a
33:14
difference in your own life and in the lives of others. It's about being
33:19
on purpose every single day. Three sixty five twenty four seven. Legacy Living
33:28
is the most powerful way to make your life count. Once again, I
33:35
want to thank you for joining me for today's podcast. I'm your host,
33:39
doctor Gloria Gloria Burgess, and this has been Legacy Living. Make your life
33:45
count. Don't just count the days in your life, make the days in
33:53
your life count. That's what Legacy Living is all about. Have a fantastic
34:00
day, and remember, make the days in your life count. God bless
34:08
you. That's our show's to day. I'm your host doctor Gloria Gloria Burgess,
34:27
I hope you'll join me again next week. Until then, don't just
34:31
count the days in your life. Make the days in your life account.
34:37
That's what legacy living is all about. Here's to you have a fantastic day.
34:44
Be sure to make it a yes kind of day, and remember celebrate,
34:50
celebrate the music of your life. Make the day in your life count