Where will you wake up tomorrow morning? Will it be in a bed under a repressive regime in Tehran? Will you arise in the beautiful city of Ljubljana, Slovenia - or Kiev, Ukraine perhaps? Will you first see the sun from a window in San Francisco, California or from one in Sao Paulo, Brazil? Will light first shine upon you in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia or in Johannesburg, South Africa? In one sense, it will not matter where you are when the day begins tomorrow. For you and everyone around the world has - and has always had - one core desire in common..
You want to be loved, and you want to give your love to others.
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In an age of bullet-speed trains, 4G wireless networks, careerism, mass poverty, discouraging headlines and pollution, it has become all too easy to forget why we get up in the morning. Yes, we must work. Yes, we must make money and put food on the table, and yes, we must help others less fortunate as unselfishly and to the greatest extent possible. But all of our efforts would be hollow without the people we hold dearest to us - the people we love and the people who love us. Whether those that we love are living, dead or separated from us by time and space, they define our lives through days of joy and in the darkest of hours.
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This is a universal truth that Christina Rossetti (1830-1894) and all true poets of any age understand. As such, poets are indispensable in reminding us of what makes us 'beautifully human'.
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On 5 December 1830, Christina was born in London. As her Italian family suffered financial hardships during her teenage years, her pain and loneliness turned to poetry. For the world, this was indeed a fortunate occurrence.
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To celebrate the arrival of National Poetry Month once again in the United States, one of Christina's poems, 'Remember' has been reproduced below. It is dedicated to all the women around the globe who are fighting against oppression - and for a world of hope, compassion and equality.
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Remember
Remember me when I am gone away,
Gone far away into the silent land;
When you can no more hold me by the hand,
Nor I half turn to go yet turning stay.
Remember me when no more day by day
You tell me of our future that you plann'd:
Only remember me; you understand
It will be late to counsel then or pray.
Yet if you should forget me for a while
And afterwards remember, do not grieve:
For if the darkness and corruption leave
A vestige of the thoughts that once I had,
Better by far you should forget and smile
Than that you should remember and be sad.
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(Picture: Christina Rossetti)
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J Roquen