Broken Glass

Stained glass art, at the very start,
is a patchwork of broken glass,
the kind we pass in vacant lots
where weeds and troubles grow,

thrown aside, shattered, ground,
the glass lies there without a sound,
unsightly, urban blight some say,
but people also break that way,

at birth, such treasured works of art,
they later fracture, split apart,
their shattered dreams
get swept along the floor,

so easy to ignore their plight,
as we drive by the vacant lots of life,

the places where real lives exist,
and dreams might yet insist
on looking to come back alive,
to grow and even thrive,

a chance assist might help
those dreams survive,

for all the broken lives we see
are part of you and part of me,
every heart and every soul
a fragment of a bigger whole,

so find a piece of broken glass
and I will find one too,
and pretty soon, we’ll find enough
to change a life or two.
By Rita Bourland © 2015

This poem was written for an event at the Columbus Foundation where a group of panelists discussed philanthropy and the ways each of us can make a difference in the world. I was asked to write a poem to tie in with the theme for the evening. After writing the poem, I visited Glass Axis in Columbus and they helped to create a visual representation of the poem. It was a wonderful process from beginning to end!