“And the people stayed home”

Editor’s Note: This poem was written in March 2020 by Kitty O’Meara, a retired teacher in Wisconsin, who wanted to offer words of encouragement and healing to people affected by the novel coronavirus. It soon gained widespread attention as it was shared by people around the world who were comforted by these words. We hope they will comfort you too.

And the people stayed home.
And read books, and listened, and rested,
and exercised, and made art, and played games,
and learned new ways of being, and were still.
And listened more deeply.

Some meditated, some prayed, some danced.
Some met their shadows.
And the people began to think differently.
And the people healed.
And, in the absence of people living in ignorant,
dangerous, mindless, and heartless ways,
the earth began to heal.

And when the danger passed, and the people joined together again,
they grieved their losses, and made new choices, and dreamed new images,
and created new ways to live and heal the earth fully,
as they had been healed.