A Way of Staying Soft

Choosing tenderness in a world that asks for numbness

Photo by Joshua J. Cotten on Unsplash

“Tenderness and kindness are not signs of weakness and despair,
but manifestations of strength and resolution.”
Kahlil Gibran

Some days, I dream of letting go,
to float like a petal on a stream
that never questions its path.
To watch headlines fade, grief slip by
unnamed. To say, the world is breaking,
and feel only a flicker of heat.

But I’ve seen how silence invites
cruelty, how quiet moss creeps
where no one looks. How beauty, ignored,
dims like a sparrow’s call no one hears.

So instead, I light a match at dawn,
set a candle by my desk. I cradle coffee
in my worn mug and praise the warmth
that blooms. I cut extra stalks of asparagus
for the neighbors. I tuck seeds into soil—
coneflower, milkweed—and whisper a hope
for whatever still hums.

It’s a small act,
but it’s how I stay tender
in a world that keeps asking us
to go numb.

First published in Berlin Review

“No act of kindness, no matter how small, is ever wasted.”
Aesop

As always, a huge THANK YOU for taking the time to read my poem. Without you, my voice would be a whisper just floating in the air.

---