November 2, 2025
Featured Poem
Settling into fall now. Gardening is wrapping up, the Renaissance Festival season is over and now it’s full speed into the holidays. I’m looking forward to a lot of eating, drinking and catching up with the family in front of a roaring fire.
Unfortunately, this delightful image is tarnished every time I watch the evening news. I’m reminded of others who would view it a blessing just to have a meal and a warm place to stay. So, after a bit of research, this month I’ve chosen another poem by Maya Angelou. It reminds me that the family I should be concerned about is a lot bigger than the one I can get into my family room.
Human Family
By Maya Angelou
I note the obvious differences
in the human family.
Some of us are serious,
some thrive on comedy.
Some declare their lives are lived
as true profundity,
and others claim they really live
the real reality.
The variety of our skin tones
can confuse, bemuse, delight,
brown and pink and beige and purple,
tan and blue and white.
I've sailed upon the seven seas
and stopped in every land,
I've seen the wonders of the world
not yet one common man.
I know ten thousand women
called Jane and Mary Jane,
but I've not seen any two
who really were the same.
Mirror twins are different
although their features jibe,
and lovers think quite different thoughts
while lying side by side.
We love and lose in China,
we weep on England's moors,
and laugh and moan in Guinea,
and thrive on Spanish shores.
We seek success in Finland,
are born and die in Maine.
In minor ways we differ,
in major we're the same.
I note the obvious differences
between each sort and type,
but we are more alike, my friends,
than we are unalike.
We are more alike, my friends,
than we are unalike.
We are more alike, my friends,
than we are unalike.
One reply on “The Poet’s Corner”
It was fun and cool to read The Raven again. You make me feel smart and educated.