As you all know, It's National Poetry Month. We will celebrate by posting an inpirational poem each day to enlighten and encourage our Respectedd readers. Today's poem is called 'Respect.' If you are in touch with the news, I'm sure you have noticed the lack of Respect certain media have when it comes to the cultural and personal differences of others. I hope this poem, written by David Harris, encourages you to respect one another despite your different truths. Enjoy :)

Respect

If we can not respect another

How can we expect them to respect us

If we can not respect someone’s beliefs

How can we expect them to respect ours

If we can not respect another’s race

How can we expect that race to respect us

If we can not respect others

How can we expect respect in return

Everyone expects respect

No matter who they are

The only way to gain it 

Is to start treating everyone

As a friend, a brother, a sister

As part of our extended family

No matter what colour or creed they are

Only then you will start to get

The respect you so dearly crave 

(Source)

As we celebrate National Poetry Month, I urge to believe in yourself. For nothing is impossible if you believe that are unstoppable.

Check out this amazing poem, called 'Present,' by Jeff Rushton ( below):

Present

Faith IS success in life

Faith is the catalyst within

Faith is the belief to begin

Faith is the foundation and the frame

Faith is the power that helps you win

Faith is the concentration of your brain

Faith is the power to know and to do

Faith is the cure for 'NO' and those that 'Lose' 

Faith is your spirit, your sinews, your soul

Faith is the body that truly has all control

Faith is the beginning and the end

Faith is everything therein

Faith can move mountains and valleys and hills

But faith can do NOTHING...

Unless YOU are there. 

April is National Poetry Month. To join in on the writing celebration, Respectedd will be posting some of the world's best poetry every day this month. Here's a little something from the lovely Maya Angelou. It's called 'Still I Rise'. Enjoy :) 

Still I Rise

You may write me down in history

With your bitter, twisted lies,

You may trod me in the very dirt

But still, like dust, I'll rise.

Does my sassiness upset you?

Why are you beset with gloom?

'Cause I walk like I've got oil wells

Pumping in my living room.

Just like moons and like suns,

With the certainty of tides,

Just like hopes springing high,

Still I'll rise.

Did you want to see me broken?

Bowed head and lowered eyes?

Shoulders falling down like teardrops.

Weakened by my soulful cries.

Does my haughtiness offend you?

Don't you take it awful hard

'Cause I laugh like I've got gold mines

Diggin' in my own back yard.

You may shoot me with your words,

You may cut me with your eyes,

You may kill me with your hatefulness,

But still, like air, I'll rise.

Does my sexiness upset you?

Does it come as a surprise

That I dance like I've got diamonds

At the meeting of my thighs?

Out of the huts of history's shame

I rise

Up from a past that's rooted in pain

I rise

I'm a black ocean, leaping and wide,

Welling and swelling I bear in the tide.

Leaving behind nights of terror and fear

I rise

Into a daybreak that's wondrously clear

I rise

Bringing the gifts that my ancestors gave,

I am the dream and the hope of the slave.

I rise

I rise

I rise. 

Since it is National Poetry Month, I thought that it would be appropriate to post inspirational poems every day during the month of April. 

The poem (below) is called "Our Deepest Fear." It was written by Marianne Williamson and is taken from her book, A Return To Love.

Our Deepest Fear

By Marianne Williamson

Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. 

Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. 

It is our light, not our darkness

That most frightens us.

We ask ourselves

Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous?

Actually, who are you not to be? 

You are a child of God.

Your playing small 

Does not serve the world. 

There's nothing enlightened about shrinking 

So that other people won't feel insecure around you.

We are all meant to shine, 

As children do. 

We were born to make manifest 

The glory of God that is within us.

It's not just in some of us; 

It's in everyone.

And as we let our own light shine, 

We unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. 

As we're liberated from our own fear, 

Our presence automatically liberates others.

Natasha Threthewey, a Pullitzer Prize winner, was named US poet laureate on Thursday.

Trethewey, an English professor at Emory University, won the Pullitzer Prize for her collection, "Native Guard" in 2007.

She was born in Gulfport, Mississippi and is the second southerner to be appointed to this position.

"Her poems dig beneath the surface of history— personal or communal, from childhood or from a century ago — to explore the human struggles we all face," said Librarian of Congress James Billington.

Thretheway will begin working as US Poet Laureate this fall.

(Source)