WORTH A READ

This article was in the paper Sunday. I have known the Steins for over 20 years ( babysat their kids for a very long time ) The dad of the family was named Poet Laureate a few years ago.


http://www.pjstar.com/news/x1658511518/Power-of-poetry-reinforced-for-Illinois-poet-laureate



Here is the poem that Kevin Stein wrote (in case the link does not work)

You know these names as more than polished stone,
more even than ink on white parchment.
You know the child awash with chocolate,
the lanky one whose knees no jeans could hold.

You know the face you've framed upon the wall,
those eyes as lush as June lilies, that hair
as wild as the river after spring rains.

You know the one who shouldered burdens
asked of him. You know sacrifice because
she gave you the word whole, in act and deed
of hour upon lonesome hour. You know these,

and shall not forget the way you learned by heart
what it means to birth and give away. Mothers
know how mothers greet sun's yellow umbrella

unfolding from Kankakee to Cairo,
Watseka to Buffalo Grove to Rock Island -
arcing from there to Tokyo and Seoul,
Berlin to London, Kabul to Baghdad.

You know why sunrise portends sunset, realm
of the asked and given. Your nation's born of
more than stone, more than ink on white parchment.