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Healing the Divide: Poems of Kindness and Connection
This anthology features poems by Mark Doty, Ross Gay, Donald Hall, Marie Howe, Naomi Shihab Nye and many others. These poets, from all walks of life, and from all over America, prove to us the possibility of creating in our lives what Dr. Martin Luther King called the "beloved community," a place where we see each other as the neighbors we already are. Healing the Divide urges us, at this fraught political time, to move past the negativity that often fills the airwaves, and to embrace the ordinary moments of kindness and connection that fill our days.
152 pages, Kindle Edition
Published June 28, 2020
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490 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 45 reviews
December 20, 2024
I love a good poetry anthology. This one was all right. Because they’re chosen for a particular time, place, audience, and purpose, there was less variety than I might have liked - all simply expressed, relatively easy to read moments of connection or observation in American life. I guess because the aim of gathering them together was to create a realization that we’re all the same in many ways, they were a little too samey for me when taken as a whole. All similar formats too, nothing very inventive, more like prose formatted as poetry, which could have been striking from time to time but stretched over the whole collection. Still a smattering that I definitely appreciated, however, and the bedtime reading I needed over a few otherwise stressful evenings. 2.5.
November 7, 2022
I'm not sure why this collection is organized in alphabetical order by the poet's last name - it seems like a rather thoughtless way to organize a poetry collection - but I did note that I enjoyed more poems after the letter 'K'. The poems mostly reflect moments of self-conscious being, where the poet takes an everyday experience, and expands the thought in an attempt to capture the eternal. It might be a moment of love - parental or romantic - or it might be through our interactions with nature. Sometimes the stretch to the eternal was too much and the poem snapped and fell in on itself; sometimes, it was perfectly done. Overall, I thought Crews' The Path to Kindness' is his best edited collection so far, and this one is his least, but there are still good pieces contained within.
'Lily' by Ron KOERTGE is a lovely poem of renewal about adopting an older cat, after her owner died. The poet rejects the advice to 'put her down' and takes her home instead. Love this poem, love this man!
'I Confess' by Alison LUTERMAN is a meditation on seeing a woman, a stranger in a grocery store, 'her erect bearing, radiating tenderness / the way she placed yoghurt and avocados in her basket / beaming peace like the North Star.' I really related to her experience of being intrigued by a person's essence, and wishing that total stranger was someone you could count among your friends.
I leave the last word to Miller Williams in his poem 'Compassion' (who being a 'W' was also the last poet in the book:
Have compassion for everyone you meet,
even if they don’t want it. What seems conceit,
bad manners, or cynicism is always a sign
of things no ears have heard, no eyes have seen.
You do not know what wars are going on
down there where the spirit meets the bone.
'Lily' by Ron KOERTGE is a lovely poem of renewal about adopting an older cat, after her owner died. The poet rejects the advice to 'put her down' and takes her home instead. Love this poem, love this man!
'I Confess' by Alison LUTERMAN is a meditation on seeing a woman, a stranger in a grocery store, 'her erect bearing, radiating tenderness / the way she placed yoghurt and avocados in her basket / beaming peace like the North Star.' I really related to her experience of being intrigued by a person's essence, and wishing that total stranger was someone you could count among your friends.
I leave the last word to Miller Williams in his poem 'Compassion' (who being a 'W' was also the last poet in the book:
Have compassion for everyone you meet,
even if they don’t want it. What seems conceit,
bad manners, or cynicism is always a sign
of things no ears have heard, no eyes have seen.
You do not know what wars are going on
down there where the spirit meets the bone.
February 27, 2021
Many of these unfussy, nuanced gems of everyday kindness and tenderness may beget softening and forgiveness.
July 19, 2020
I am completely undone by this collection of poetry. So many spoke directly to me, to the events happening in my life right now, to the state of our world, the poems are poignant, charming, vulnerable, uplifting, tender, and challenging. My favorite is Listen by Barbara Crooker but truthfully they are all wonderful in one way or another. Highly recommended.
December 20, 2025
I've never been one for anthologies, but this one has changed my mind. A thoughtfully curated collection of modern poets who have each captured moments of kindness and connection in daily life ... and there are some beautiful works in this collection ... this book provides an antidote for the malaise, the anger, the hate speech, and the cruelty that tend to dominate our airwaves, our social media, and our political discourse.
This is a book I'll be keeping close by to reread poems as the need arises, and I'm sure it will arise. These poems are a pleasant reminder of how decent people can be to each other and to their fellow creatures and that love, actually, is all around us.
This is a book I'll be keeping close by to reread poems as the need arises, and I'm sure it will arise. These poems are a pleasant reminder of how decent people can be to each other and to their fellow creatures and that love, actually, is all around us.
October 22, 2022
At our table, graced by a loaf/ that steamed when we sliced it,/ softened the butter and leavened/ the very air we’d breathe,/ he’d count us blessed (Bread, Richard Levine)
Like fresh bread, this collection is utter warmth and softness. New dimensions of kindness and connection to explore each read. Would make a lovely gift for anyone even slightly interested in poetry.
Like fresh bread, this collection is utter warmth and softness. New dimensions of kindness and connection to explore each read. Would make a lovely gift for anyone even slightly interested in poetry.
February 8, 2020
One of the best poetry collections I've read in awhile. If you haven't read poetry lately, or even if you have, this is a great reminder of what the heart of good and true poems can do.
April 21, 2020
I got the book cuz it featured one of my favourite poets, Ross Gay. But the book overall has many soothing and bright poems. Great as a bedtime read or for soon after you wake.
December 20, 2020
Beautiful. Just what I needed. Read out loud even better.
March 12, 2025
Tender and gentle, this anthology feels like spreading melted butter on a toasted slice of bread, graceful yet simple. I'd say this is a perfect little gem to read on a daily basis. A poem or two when time allows. On a sunny morning while sipping a warm cup of Aloysia. Under a heavy crocheted blanket by the drizzle-covered window. Sitting on a park bench on a late summer evening. Because this collection does not abide by a tailored time or place. It simply requires you to be. It only requires being for it to be fully enjoyed--being human, being alive, being capable of feeling.
Below is one of my favorite poems, 'Kindness' by Anya Silver:
Below is one of my favorite poems, 'Kindness' by Anya Silver:
Last week, a nurse pulled a warm blanket
from a magical cave of heated cotton
and lay it on my lap, even wrapping
my feet. She admired my red sandals.
Once, a friend brought me a chicken
she’d roasted and packed with whole lemons.
I ate it with my fingers while it was still warm.
Kindnesses appear, then disappear so quickly
that I forget their brief streaks: they vanish,
while cruelty pearls its durable shell.
Goodness streams like hot water through my hair
and down my skin, and I’m able to live
again with the ache. Love wakens the world.
Kindness is my mother, sending me a yellow dress in the mail
for no reason other than to watch me twirl.
October 3, 2023
I've read from this sporadically over the past three years or so, seeking pieces to share with students and friends. I finally sat down at my desk and read through all of them, backwards for some reason, flagging ones to share with my classes and texting ones that call out to friends near and far. They are tender pieces, the majority of which pivot around family -- parents to children, reminiscing about when they were younger and nursing or toddlers, the wistfulness of aging, caring for our aging parents, cancer comes up several times, some encouraging sights of kind strangers, meditations on those calm moments of repose and reflection. Reading through the short anthology reminded me of how much I love reading poems and how I'd like to do that more.
May 7, 2024
I enjoyed this anthology of modern poems about connection and kindness. This might be one to purchase, as I put sticky notes on many of the poems in the edition I borrowed from the library. I love reading anthologies to discover new-to-me poets, and this one did not disappoint.
February 1, 2024
A beautiful collection of poetry that feels like leaning into a warm hug and reliable shoulder. Our lives are busy and pace of news is a sprint- this is how we slow it down and take our time back.
February 18, 2024
If you ever feel like you're losing your faith in humanity, this excellent collection of poetry can go a long way toward restoring it. I really enjoyed this.
April 19, 2024
The poems in this collection that most worked on me were the ones that attended to a concrete image or moment.
April 4, 2020
A book to have on your bedside table, right now! I cannot recommend this poetry collection more highly. I purchased it before I knew we would be living in the midst of corona crisis; I'm so grateful to have it. I have read and re-read many of these poems over the past several days. Words of compassion, words that remind us of our common humanity, words that soothe...I find many phrases I can relate to, some that make me smile, some that bring a lump to my throat. And some that make me want to pick up a pen myself!
Some authors and a few poems I'd known before, many are new. Here's a favorite:
Small Kindnesses
By Danusha Laméris
I’ve been thinking about the way, when you walk
down a crowded aisle, people pull in their legs
to let you by. Or how strangers still say “bless you”
when someone sneezes, a leftover
from the Bubonic plague. “Don’t die,” we are saying.
And sometimes, when you spill lemons
from your grocery bag, someone else will help you
pick them up. Mostly, we don’t want to harm each other.
We want to be handed our cup of coffee hot,
and to say thank you to the person handing it. To smile
at them and for them to smile back. For the waitress
to call us honey when she sets down the bowl of clam chowder,
and for the driver in the red pick-up truck to let us pass.
We have so little of each other, now. So far
from tribe and fire. Only these brief moments of exchange.
What if they are the true dwelling of the holy, these
fleeting temples we make together when we say, “Here,
have my seat,” “Go ahead — you first,” “I like your hat.”
Some authors and a few poems I'd known before, many are new. Here's a favorite:
Small Kindnesses
By Danusha Laméris
I’ve been thinking about the way, when you walk
down a crowded aisle, people pull in their legs
to let you by. Or how strangers still say “bless you”
when someone sneezes, a leftover
from the Bubonic plague. “Don’t die,” we are saying.
And sometimes, when you spill lemons
from your grocery bag, someone else will help you
pick them up. Mostly, we don’t want to harm each other.
We want to be handed our cup of coffee hot,
and to say thank you to the person handing it. To smile
at them and for them to smile back. For the waitress
to call us honey when she sets down the bowl of clam chowder,
and for the driver in the red pick-up truck to let us pass.
We have so little of each other, now. So far
from tribe and fire. Only these brief moments of exchange.
What if they are the true dwelling of the holy, these
fleeting temples we make together when we say, “Here,
have my seat,” “Go ahead — you first,” “I like your hat.”
August 24, 2021
What a stellar collection of poems! There were both familiar and unfamiliar poems and poets, which is my favorite blend.
Favorites:
In Leo Dangel’s poem, In Memoriam, he writes about his mom carrying him to bed when he was a child and at the end of the poem he says, “she’s still moving me to a softer place.”
In Tami Haaland’s poem about sleeping with her chihuahua, she writes, “We are bone and bone, muscle and muscle, and underneath each surface a quiet and insistent pulse.”
Danusha Lameris’ poem, Small Kindnesses was a beautiful reminder that “Mostly we don’t want to harm each other,” which is something I try to think about when dealing with cranky folks at the library. Her lines are like smooth worry stones I’ve been touching to remind myself that the world is kind, that these small kindnesses “…are the true dwelling of the holy, these fleeting temples we make together when we say, ‘Here, have my seat,’ ‘Go ahead—you first,’ ‘I like your hat.’”
Favorites:
In Leo Dangel’s poem, In Memoriam, he writes about his mom carrying him to bed when he was a child and at the end of the poem he says, “she’s still moving me to a softer place.”
In Tami Haaland’s poem about sleeping with her chihuahua, she writes, “We are bone and bone, muscle and muscle, and underneath each surface a quiet and insistent pulse.”
Danusha Lameris’ poem, Small Kindnesses was a beautiful reminder that “Mostly we don’t want to harm each other,” which is something I try to think about when dealing with cranky folks at the library. Her lines are like smooth worry stones I’ve been touching to remind myself that the world is kind, that these small kindnesses “…are the true dwelling of the holy, these fleeting temples we make together when we say, ‘Here, have my seat,’ ‘Go ahead—you first,’ ‘I like your hat.’”
April 24, 2020
Crews had no way of knowing how much we would need these poems in 2020. These are comforting poems, upbeat and kind, by famous poets and less famous poets—Ted Kooser, Natasha Tretheway, Ellen Bass, William Stafford, Donald Hall, Joy Harjo, etc. The poems are accessible, easy to read, which we need in hard times. One of my favorites is Crews’ own poem, “Telling My Father,” in which he discloses his gayness without actually saying it. “My father turned to me then, taking in/the reek of my smoke, traces of last night’s/eyeliner I decided not to wipe off this time./Out late was all he said . . .” Then there’s Alison Luterman’s “I Confess,” describing an encounter at the grocery store where there are so many things she wants to say but only gets out “I love your hair.” This is a book to savor and reread whenever life feels too hard.
March 17, 2020
It is sometimes risky to choose an anthology to read as you are at the mercy of the editor's views, perceptions, biases, messaging. Is this case, the editor, James Crews, has assembled a consistently beautiful collection of poems that really speak to the heart, something good poems can do so well. Some of the poems made my cry, some laugh, some put a smile at my heart and others created anger at the unfairness of life. I think this is what is needed in this "Healing". Thank you for a task well done.
I highly recommend reading and savoring this book over and over again.
I highly recommend reading and savoring this book over and over again.
October 2, 2019
In the times that we live in today, this collection comes as a breath of fresh air. I have found myself pulling this book out over and over again as I seek out hope and joy and peace in the midst of this crazy life we live in.
At once a masterful collection of care for both the self and others, as well as a quiet reflection on the importance and vitality of compassion, this is truly one for the ages.
At once a masterful collection of care for both the self and others, as well as a quiet reflection on the importance and vitality of compassion, this is truly one for the ages.
April 30, 2020
I'll be reading and rereading the poems in this delightful small anthology of contemporary poetry. Each poem a different poet, seemingly arranged by theme, but actually only by author's name, all with themes of relationship, family, kindness, and compassion. Seems especially pertinent in this Covid19 time. Great way to discover new poets to explore. We are using this book as the basis for a 10 week poetry class with Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer.
June 7, 2020
I've been leading a discussion series on this book, and it has helped us through the beginning of the pandemic. In a time of great change and social upheaval, this book has been an anchor, meeting us wherever we are, helping to tether us to the moment. Brilliant collection--heart opening and glorious.
December 20, 2021
As with any poetry book, do you truly read the whole thing? I loved many of the poems I read. Others didn't speak to me. I chose it for the topic and the poems certainly are about kindness and connection. When I get a poetry book out of the library, I skip around in it, reading a few a day. 3 weeks is never enough to truly read a poetry book! I will request it again.
April 16, 2019
Gentle and powerful at the same time, this collection of poems speaks into the reality of our lives. This thoughtful anthology encourages us towards our common dreams and yearnings for a hope-filled tomorrow - starting today.
August 11, 2019
What a great collection of poems to reconnect us to the very essence of our humanity and ultimately to one another, bridging divides which try and separate us from one another, i.e., political polarization, etc.
December 22, 2019
I will be returning to this compilation of poems again and again, as it’s asking us to slow down and appreciate the little details and joys we may be overlooking.
I absolutely recommend reading Ross Gay’s featured poem, “A Small Needful Fact.”
I absolutely recommend reading Ross Gay’s featured poem, “A Small Needful Fact.”
September 8, 2020
This brought me so much joy. In the midst of a pandemic & a world of chaos, it is rare to find so much kindness. This anthology brought me peace and I am thankful for all the poets sharing their kindnesses and moments of connection.
December 19, 2022
What an excellent idea for a poetry collection and truly gorgeous selection. Perfect for my work as a facilitator, where I often use reading poetry aloud as a tool of reflection and connection. Plan to make use of this book again and joyfully again.
September 10, 2019
This is a lovely anthology to savor. So many of the poems made me smile. It would make a thoughtful gift.
September 19, 2019
A lovely book of uplifting poems for these troubled times. Very easy to understand. I really enjoyed reading a few each morning and night.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 45 reviews