Be Creative-My Upward Bound Poem in 1967

I remember when I was a  junior in high school. I was in the Upward Bound Program and experiencing the culture shock of being in a new environment outside of my native Newark, New Jersey home. It was something very new. At that time, I did not see the uglyness of racism with the counselors and sisters who were focused on seeing us achieve. It was an amazing time.

Believe it or not I even wanted to be a nun. But not just a regular nun but a cloister nun who spent time praying for others in the world. Of course, I learned that prayer can be done any time and anywhere and still very powerful.

I am not going to say that my view did not change during my four years at the college. I was one of only 8 students from Newark to graduate from there in 1972. I met many people with their own bias, I developed my own bias, and met many who still practiced love. It was a wonderful learning time for us all.

The following poem was published in the President’s Report of the College of Saint Elizabeth where I later attended College for four years after I graduated. I was young and full of idealism. I wonder how relevant is that poem today?

It is so important to take a look at the creative things you have done in the past to encourage you to keep doing them in the future.

THOUGHTS

We all must depart,
my world, your world
from this world.

Each to her separate ways
For the world we have shared for so
brief a time,
was a world of love, understanding,
learning, communication, knowledge,
awareness
to each other,
others,
different,
alike.

Here we obtained something our worlds
may not have had before
Something we can each take back with us.

My world so much different from yours
I have a slum,
you a community
I will go about riot reconstruction,
you progress

So now is the time
before we depart
to look upon our present state
with open eyes.

So that we we go to our own worlds
we can give what was given to us.
We can say we had the experience before
of sharing
Why don’t we strive together
When we depart
to make my world,
your world
and this world,
OUR WORLD…

Rosemary Calhoun, Copyright, 1967

Now do you have anything you created in the past that you want to share? Just add it by clicking on the comment button at the end of this post.