Shabd at Morris Park NYPL (Session 1)

Shabd at Morris Park NYPL (Session 1)

For the first session of "Shabd" at the Morris Park New York Public Library in the Bronx, we discussed and put to movement two poems - "I Dream a World" by Langston Hughes, and "Where the mind is without fear" by Tagore. 

"Where the mind is without fear"
- Ravindranath Tagore

Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high
Where knowledge is free
Where the world has not been broken up into fragments
By narrow domestic walls
Where words come out from the depth of truth
Where tireless striving stretches its arms towards perfection
Where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way
Into the dreary desert sand of dead habit
Where the mind is led forward by thee
Into ever-widening thought and action
Into that heaven of freedom, my Father, let my country awake.

"I dream a world"
- Langston Hughes

I dream a world where man
No other man will scorn,
Where love will bless the earth
And peace its paths adorn
I dream a world where all
Will know sweet freedom's way,
Where greed no longer saps the soul
Nor avarice blights our day.
A world I dream where black or white,
Whatever race you be,
Will share the bounties of the earth
And every man is free,
Where wretchedness will hang its head
And joy, like a pearl,
Attends the needs of all mankind-
Of such I dream, my world!

Participants also made a group poem:
I dream of:
Peace in the world
Love in the world
Sharing (resources)
Care for each other
Time to be
Time to be in nature
Listening to each other
Self-reflection

---