Welcome to Poetically Yours. Poetically Yours features northern Illinois poets. This week we highlight Margo Anderson.
Anderson was born and raised in Illinois but moved away to attend Mount Holyoke College in Massachusetts. After graduating with a bachelor’s in psychology, she moved back to Illinois to study LGBT and women’s studies at Northern Illinois University in Dekalb.
Today she works at Association for Individual Development in Aurora as a direct support person where she helps individuals with special needs. She also volunteers for Friends for Therapeutic Equine Activities in Wayne, Illinois where she uses the horses to enrich the lives of people with special needs.
When she’s not working or volunteering, she enjoys numerous hobbies. They include: horseback riding, swimming, going to the gym, playing both board and video games, knitting, crocheting, reading, and writing poetry and prose. She also loves spending time with friends and family, playing with animals and enjoying nature.
Anderson considers a different view of the pandemic with her poem “COVID.”
It’s disappointment at a vacation not taken, a wedding postponed
Fear of the loss of loved ones
Anger at a source of revenue cut short
Despair at the total lack of control and parts of yourself forever changed
But I’m not the only one with canceled plans, loved ones at risk, income lost
I’m not the only one anxious and stir crazy, stuck at home with my thoughts
The air of the world fills with tension
And yet perhaps COVID is a gift
Its packaging saying simply “love each other”
Take the time to rest, to heal, to spend with those we still have and
mourn those we don’t
Take note of those underappreciated workers risking their health and
safety to form the backbone of our society
Learn from the mistakes of the past and correct them
Because we have no choice now
A virus has taken our freedom, our livelihoods, and our lives
It has even taken our spirit
But it will end and, when it does, we will be a stronger society for it
I look forward to that day
- Yvonne Boose is a current corps member for Report for America, an initiative of the GroundTruth Project. It's a national service program that places talented journalists in local newsrooms like WNIJ. You can learn more about Report for America at wnij.org.
