Words of fearlessness or courage:

 

Fearlessness / courage

Ukrainian medal for courage

The difference between courage and fearlessness is that courage is despite fear--it is not without fear.  I don't know if we can distinguish the two by appearance, because people can and do "put on a brave face."  And acts of fearlessness and courage can be miniscule and personal as well as large or out in the public eye.  

This week, write a poem addressing any aspect of courage or fearlessness.

Here are some sample poems:

Fear

By Kahlil Gibran 

It is said that before entering the sea
a river trembles with fear.

She looks back at the path she has traveled,
from the peaks of the mountains,
the long winding road crossing forests and villages.

And in front of her,
she sees an ocean so vast,
that to enter
there seems nothing more than to disappear forever.

But there is no other way.
The river can not go back.

Nobody can go back.
To go back is impossible in existence.

The river needs to take the risk
of entering the ocean
because only then will fear disappear,
because that’s where the river will know
it’s not about disappearing into the ocean,
but of becoming the ocean.

The Summer You Learned to Swim

By Michael Simms

For Lea

The summer you learned to swim

was the summer I learned to be at peace with myself.

In May you were afraid to put your face in the water

but by August, I was standing in the pool once more

when you dove in, then retreated to the wall saying

You forgot to say Sugar! So I said Come on Sugar, you can do it

and you pushed off and swam to me and held on

laughing, your hair stuck to your cheeks—

you hiccupped with joy and swam off again.

And I dove in too, trying new things.

I tried not giving advice. I tried waking early to pray. I tried

not rising in anger. Watching you I grew stronger—

your courage washed away my fear.

All day I worked hard thinking of you.

In the evening I walked the long hill home.

You were at the top, waving your small arms,

pittering down the slope to me and I lifted you high

so high to the moon. That summer all the world

was soul and water, light glancing off peaks.

You learned the turtle, the cannonball, the froggy, and the flutter

and I learned to stand and wait for you to swim to me.

Still I Rise

By Maya Angelou

You may write me down in history

With your bitter, twisted lies,

You may trod me in the very dirt

But still, like dust, I'll rise.

Does my sassiness upset you?

Why are you beset with gloom?

’Cause I walk like I've got oil wells

Pumping in my living room.

Just like moons and like suns,

With the certainty of tides,

Just like hopes springing high,

Still I'll rise.

Did you want to see me broken?

Bowed head and lowered eyes?

Shoulders falling down like teardrops,

Weakened by my soulful cries?

Does my haughtiness offend you?

Don't you take it awful hard

’Cause I laugh like I've got gold mines

Diggin’ in my own backyard.

You may shoot me with your words,

You may cut me with your eyes,

You may kill me with your hatefulness,

But still, like air, I’ll rise.

Does my sexiness upset you?

Does it come as a surprise

That I dance like I've got diamonds

At the meeting of my thighs?

Out of the huts of history’s shame

I rise

Up from a past that’s rooted in pain

I rise

I'm a black ocean, leaping and wide,

Welling and swelling I bear in the tide.

Leaving behind nights of terror and fear

I rise

Into a daybreak that’s wondrously clear

I rise

Bringing the gifts that my ancestors gave,

I am the dream and the hope of the slave.

I rise

I rise

I rise.

💙💙💙

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