Poem for the Times: 'And People Stayed Home'

Tom McCarthy recommends Kathleen O'Meara's poem, 'And People Stayed Home'.

St Jerome in meditation by Caravaggio (1606)

and people stayed home

and read books and listened

and rested and exercised

and made art and played

and learned new ways of being

and stopped

and listened deeper

someone meditated

someone prayed

someone danced

someone met their shadow

and people began to think differently

and people healed

and in the absence of people who lived in ignorant ways, dangerous, meaningless and heartless, even the earth began to heal and when the danger ended and people found each other grieved for the dead people and they made new choices and dreamed of new visions and created new ways of life and healed the earth completely just as they were healed themselves.

                                                                                                        Kathleen O’Meara