Welcome to Poetically Yours. Poetically Yours showcases poems by Illinois poets. This week’s featured poet is Lori Beach-Grass.
Beach-Grass started a spoken word club called LIT UP. It began at West Middle School in Rockford but as the group grew, literally and figuratively, the meetups moved to Auburn High School. Beach-Grass was a teacher, but multiple sclerosis pushed her into retirement. This April, the squad visited the WNIJ studio for a special Facebook live and while there, they recorded a few poems. Beach-Grass left some words behind as well. Here’s her poem “Ripples of Civility.”
We all have the internal chosen ability,
No matter where we live, the suburbs or inner city…
To treat people we meet in our 815 community,
With kindness, empathy, respect, and civility.
It's not always an easy choice to make…
Sometimes people take and fake and readily forsake.
But the decisions they make to actively desecrate,
Will cause ripples that result in a world filled with hate.
Freedom doesn't mean that we can say what we want,
If our words are meant to belittle and taunt.
We need to consciously choose to clean up our hearts…
Because that's where the root of civility starts
