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One Breeze of a Push

April is National Poetry Month in Canada, and I was reminded of this when I gathered with Alumnae and past staff for our final virtual Alumnae Book Club of the year. Our theme this year has been “Books that make you proud to be Canadian”; during our final gathering, I was grateful to Alumna Lucy Farcnik ’19 who reminded me of how much I love poetry. After she had shared her chosen book of poetry, I made a note to take some time this weekend to read a new book.

I love poetry because it challenges me to reflect and marvel at others’ mastery of words in creating meaning. Depending on the day, time, or circumstances, poetry can reveal different messages.

A poet I enjoy, Tyler Knott Gregson, just released a new compilation of entitled Illumination: Poetry to Light Up the Darkness. This new book intrigued me for, what I hope, are obvious reasons. As I read through his wonderful poems, I was struck by this one:

Sometimes you gotta leap, take a jump into the unknown

and hope for the best. Sometimes you’ve been perched

so long you forget about your wings, forget the songs you were handed

down, the songs you once sang. Sometimes you’re stuck and frozen

in fear and worry and the weight of what if.

Sometimes it takes one breeze of a push to remind you,

To stretch out those wings, to hum those notes again.

                           -Tyler Knott Gregson

This weekend was a time for reflection. My family celebrates Easter, an important time in the Christian calendar. Easter is a reminder that it is often through darkness that we come to light; it is in believing this that we can move forward.

We have been through darkness and we have some significant dark times ahead. I also know that many have become perched with fear and it seems that this is our new reality. Yet as I read Tyler Knott Gregson’s poem this Easter weekend, I feel hope that we will all be touched by the breeze of a push, we will be able to stretch our wings, and we will hum again.

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