Finding the Softness of Our Kinship

A Poem During the Election of 2024

Photo by Mike Labrum on Unsplash

In This Great Knowing

by Stephen W. Smith


As we lift our head towards a new morning,
We see division and discord.
And as I look within, I see the same.
Make us one. Make me one.

How can what is broken,
Now be made whole?
We lift our fractured hearts,
Bring our many pieces together.

We were once divided by slavery.
Now, we are slaves to our opinions and convictions.
Held by the chains of our minds, rigor mortis in our attitudes.
Help us find the softness of our kinship.

You are so much more than a political party.
Can you say the same to me?
That would be a beginning.
We could stand here in this great knowing.

In this knowing, we can begin again.
To begin, we must lay down and put aside our plots for destruction.
Let our plan be only for the good of each other.
Make our weapons of words into tools of love.