Songs of Hope
National Poetry Month – Tue April 4, 2022
Fred Rogers as Mister Rogers with Daniel Tiger
It’s National Poetry Month. Hurray!
Dear friends, let me tell you a little secret: I think reading poetry is one of the most revolutionary acts of hope. People who read and write poetry are laying down despair, busyness and striving in order to partake in serenity and stillness. If you want to ingest a practice of hope, turn to poetry and learn from those who bring words in verse to light.
Throughout April, we’ll practice hope with poetry. Now please don’t unsubscribe – stay with me:) I know we’ve all suffered through horrific poetry in middle and high school—but that’s not at all what we’re doing here. Here we’re finding poetry in the most unconventional ways, captured by the most extraordinary and unexpected voices.
This week, we’re practicing poetic hope through lyric poetry of song.
Peace & Blessings,
Marcie Alvis-Walker
INVOCATION
O Spirit, our innermost-child hearts welcome you with delight.
A SONG OF HOPE FROM FRED ROGERS
Fred Rogers wrote over 200 songs for the iconic public television show Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood.
Those of us who grew up watching him on American public television reaped the field of beautiful hope that he sowed into each and every episode.
I have a wonderful book of his work that I highly recommend to anyone child ages 0-100+ years old, A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood: The Poetry of Mister Rogers. If you really want to treat yourself or a delight a child, get both the book in print and audio. The audio comes with trolley bells and whistles between each poem. Yay!!!
My most favorite all-time poem by Fred Rogers are the lyrics to the song he sang at the close of every episode: It’s Such a Good Feeling.
And because he knew there would be brokenhearted kids such as me devastated with is goodbye at the end of the week, he altered the song on Fridays to continue hope in our little hearts.
A WORD OF HOPE
Sometimes singing or just saying, “goodbye and see you soon,” gives hope to kids and adults who were witnessed people leave without such much as single word of closure or assurance. So, don’t forget to say your goodbyes and see you soons—this is a practice of hope too.
BENEDICTION
from Numbers 6:24-26
May God bless you and keep you.
May God cause the divine light to shine upon you and be gracious to you.
May God turn toward you, and grant you peace.
Amen.
Ah, Mr. Rogers! I didn’t realize how much I missed him until I watched those clips 😢
yessssssssss!!!