The Children's Advocacy Center of Jackson County

Category: Poetry

  • April ~ A Month to Honor Children

    By Michelle Wilson

    April is Child Abuse Prevention Month. It is a month to honor children everywhere, those who have been harmed and those we hope to protect.

    It is also National Poetry Month.

    For this blog, I want to share a poem by a woman I had the great fortune to meet and hear read her works many years ago, when I was a graduate student studying poetry. The poem talks of the meaning of life, of poetry, and the simple belief that children have in finding meaning in the world around them.

    The poem is one of my favorites, and I think it is because it simply celebrates life through the eyes of children, in a way that reminds me to keep looking for good all around me.

    Last week I stood in a park in downtown Medford, listening to stories of horrible abuse of young children and teens who live right here, in our neighborhoods and in our city. I stood with many other adults and honored the 707 young victims of abuse in Jackson County in 2015.

    I took this poem with me, in my mind and heart. I held its simple reminder to believe in meaning all around me and in the wonder and certainty that all children have when they are born that the world is safe, a place of hidden secrets and delights.

    I hold this belief that there is meaning in what we do – on behalf of children, on behalf of all who are hurt and suffering, on behalf of all of the families who come through our center needing help during some of the most difficult times of their lives.

    Thank you, Denise Levertov, for finding me today with this poem, much like the young girls here found you, found meaning in your words. I offer this now in honor of this month celebrating the lives of children and the wisdom of poetry.

    The Secret

    By Denise Levertov

    Two girls discover   the secret of life (2)

     

     

     

  • Only Love Sets Us Free

    By Michelle Wilson, CAC Development Director

    We received a lot of responses to the sharing of the poem “I Just Wanted to Tell You” by one of our therapists, Catherine Zern, LCSW. Many people were touched by the story she shared in this piece of a child reaching for love and guidance.

    The poem was a tribute to the hundreds of children and teens who come through our center each year and to all who are suffering from abuse, neglect, loneliness, and fear.

    In this post I want to share another poem, one by Maya Angelou. It is one of my favorites of her work and it is a follow up to the story of the child in the poem by Catherine. It is a poem about love and, for me, it is about the kind of love that gives us courage and opens our hearts to those who need us to be brave.

    It is a poem about how and why we continue to do what we do for children and those whose lives are shadowed by fear and suffering. It is about the reason and the pathway to helping children and teens, even when things feel hopeless.

    April is Child Abuse Prevention Month, and as we prepare for that, I will hold this poem in my mind and heart. I share it as a reminder for us all of the reason and the pathway.

    And I share it as a tribute to the “angels” who come to us at the center and to the angels within each one of us.

    Touched By An Angel
    By Maya Angelou

    We, unaccustomed to courage
    Exiles from delight
    Live coiled in shells of loneliness
    Until love leaves its high holy temple
    And comes into our sight
    To liberate us into life.

    Love arrives
    And in its train come ecstasies
    Old memories of pleasure
    Ancient histories of pain.
    Yet if we are bold,
    Love strikes away the chains of fear
    From our souls.

    We are weaned from our timidity
    In the flush of love’s light
    We dare to be brave
    And suddenly we see
    That love costs all we are
    And will ever be.
    Yet it is only love
    Which sets us free.

  • Just Wanted to Tell You

    Just Wanted to Tell You

    Poem by Catherine Zern, LCSW

    Your eyes were far away tonight
    And you didn’t have time to tell me a story
    Or listen to my fears of the dark
    So I screamed and cried til you spanked me
    But I was just trying’ to tell you that the
    House was on fire

    You looked grumpy this morning
    Maybe cause you were gone so late last night
    And I didn’t know where you were
    And I couldn’t sleep until I heard you stumble in
    When you slept late
    I hit my brother
    But I was just tryin’ to tell you that the
    House was on fire

    You brought home that new person
    Who was really nice to me at first
    And they took me fishin’
    And watched my games a couple of times
    But now you guys are gone a lot
    And you scream at each other when you get home
    (I can hear from my room even though you don’t think I can)
    And I sneak out my window
    But I’m just tryin’ to tell you that the
    House is on fire

    Today I tried to tell you that
    I’m really lost in math
    And my boyfriend broke up with me
    And another kid called me fat
    And you were busy with all your friends
    And you told me not to worry about it
    So I met this cute guy downtown
    Cause I had to tell somebody that the
    House is on fire

    That’s ok
    I’ve learned that it’s no big deal
    And not to wear my heart on my sleeve
    And not to worry about it
    And how tough you’ve had it

    Gotta go – party tonight
    The house has done burned down