Common Read Sponsors Poetry Contest with Empathy Theme
The Featured text of this year’s Common Read program was Until I Say Goodbye: My Year of Living with Joy, by Susan SpencerWendel with Bret Witter. The central theme was the concept of “empathy.” Program director, Susan Madera, described the educational goals as “…not only to share the author’s story, but to prompt the campus community to think outside of themselves, to imagine living in a situation different from their own, promoting an increased awareness and willingness to aid others.” Part of the Initiative was a poetry contest. Students were invited to write a poem expressing the theme of empathy. The use of images to describe the sense of feeling with someone else was encouraged.
Congratulations to Justine Visceglia, first place winner of a $100 gift card.
Empathy, to feel
You feel everything,
and you're terrified.
Their eyes tell more stories,
than any lips ever could.
Your heart cries when they do,
and you're terrified.
You burst into flames when they're angry,
and you're terrified.
And when their hands shake,
your heart shakes with them.
But when they smile,
God, when they smile;
time stops, and, there are fireworks,
electricity through your veins,
a jolt against your caged heart,
a softness in your chest,
and you're not terrified,
You feel everything.
-Justine Visceglia