I really love poetry, although I do not get the opportunity to read so much now days. When I was younger I would head to the library after school to pour over volumes of Emerson, Frost, and Poe among others. The things that made my favorites most interesting to me was how the lines often seemed to speak of my own situation in life. There is something to be said for the feeling you get when you read experiences you can relate to. Life put down into words that flow so much clearer than you might ever be able to express yourself. Although I do not get to read so much anymore, I still love to see something in prose that speaks to me of my own walk in life.

Recently I ran across just such a piece by Joyce Maguire Pavao that is just a perfect reflection to me of the adoption experience. I have yet to see anything that captures the heart of adoption so well and I wanted to share it with you.

The Family of Adoption
a Poem by Joyce Maquire Pavao

You cannot change the truth
These are your children
But they came from somewhere else
And they are the children of those places
And of those people as well

Help them to know all about their past
And all about their present
Help them to know that they are from extended families
But they have more mothers and fathers
They have grandmothers, godmothers, birth mothers, mother countries, mother earth
They have grandfathers, godfathers, birth fathers, and fatherlands
They have family by birth and by adoption
They have family by choice and by chance

Childhood is short
These are our children to raise
These are our children to love
And then they are citizens of the world
What we do for them creates the world that we live in
Give them life
Give them their truth
Give them love
Give them all that they came with
Give them all that they grow with

Your children do not belong to you
But they belong with you
You can not keep them from what is theirs
But you can keep loving them
You do not own your children
But they are your own.

For those of you who might also share my affinity for poetry and poets I found a great site that explores poets and their work from the older more classical to modern and current contemporary here.
If you are also a poet (perhaps who didn’t even know it) looking for a way to set your work apart here is a site that takes raw talent to potential publication through competition and awarded grants.

Poetry in motion! I love it!

Happy Love Thursday!