Friday Poem(s)

Environmental & Science Education, Poetry, Art and Environment

Ed Hessler

Good morning from St. Paul on the 255th day of 2020. It has taken 22,003,000 seconds to get here (69.67% of the year gone). In 12 more days it will be fall officially, the Autumnal Equinox. Sunrise today is at 6:47 am and sunset at 7:29 pm. There will be 12h 42m 44s of sunlight.

On this day in September 2001, the Islamic terrorist group al-Qaeda attacked the United States. Four aircraft strikes killed nearly 3000 people, the deadliest attack on United States soil by a foreign entity. See the 9/11 Memorial & Museum for details.

Today's quote is from correspondent Jennifer Gonnerman (The New Yorker 8/31/2020). Her reporting is about driving buses during the NYC pandemic. In particular on Terrence A. Layne. NYC employs 40000 transit workers of which more than 100 have died of COVID-19 and 1000s have been quarantined. "I don't want to be cynical, but I don't know if anybody is going to remember that during this period it was the bus operators who helped this city survive."--Terrence A. Layne, M.T.S. driver

There are two poems today from a story produced by the BBC about Kuli Kohli (b. 1970 in Uttar Pradesh, northern India). She has spent most of her life with cerebral palsy. She is now 49, married, a mother with three children, works full time and continues writing poetry. The essay describes how she became a poet and has overcome the limitations a person with CP experiences daily.

There is one poem (Mine) at the top of the entry and another (Survivor) at the end.  I hope you have the time to read the full article. It is a remarkable portrait.