In my Poetry Corner June 2026, I feature the poem “Learn to Live / Saber Viver” by one of Brazil’s great twentieth-century poets, known by her pen name, Cora Coralina (1889-1985). Baptized Ana Lins dos Guimarães Peixoto, the poet adopted the name at fifteen years old when she began writing her first poems. Cora comes from coração (heart) and Coralina from the red coralline algae: red heart.

I first featured this poem in April 2014. It soon became the topmost read post on my blog and retained that position for several years. The poet’s message is much needed in today’s upside-down world. Bear in mind that Cora Coralina lived through a turbulent period, both nationally and worldwide: two World Wars (1914-1918 & 1939-1945) and Brazil’s dictatorship (1964-1985). For those who have read my 2014 post, I offer new excerpts selected from her four poetry collections published during the period 1965 to 1985.

Born in the small town of Goiás Velho, then the capital of the State of Goiás, Aninha (as she was called) lost her father, a High Court judge, when she was a toddler. In her poem, “My Childhood,” we learn that she was not favored as the third of four daughters:

Among them, I always occupied the worst place. […] I grew up as a daughter without a father, / second-rate among my sisters. // I was sad, nervous, and ugly. / Yellowish, with a pale face. / With weak legs, falling over easily. / Those who saw me like that – said: / “This girl is the living image / of her sick old father.”

Aninha’s three years of primary school education were enough to ignite her love for reading and her imagination. At fifteen, she had her first short story published in the local newspaper under the pen name Cora Coralina. In “Autobiography,” she shares the difficulties she faced in pursuing her love of writing:

I was born to write, but the environment, time, people, and other factors have counteracted my life. / I am more of a confectioner and cook than a writer…. / I never received family encouragement to be a writer. / There was always, if not hostility, at least a determined reservation in my family towards this innate tendency of mine. […] The school of life supplemented the deficiencies of primary school that / destiny did not give me. / That is how I arrived at this [second] book without any references to mention.

As a young woman, her relationship with an older man, a divorcee and lawyer, caused a scandal. At twenty-two years old, defying her family’s objections to their relationship, they eloped and moved to the State of São Paulo. They had six children, two of whom died shortly after birth. But married life brought more restrictions, as her husband prevented her from publishing her stories. Such were the restrictions women faced during the 1900s. In her poem, “This is how I see life,” she writes:

I was born in harsh times
I accepted contradictions
struggles and hardships
as lessons of life
and they helped me
I learned to live.

Widowed at forty-five years old, Cora Coralina lived in several cities across the State of São Paulo, working as a cook, bookseller, and even plowing land. Never giving up on her writing, she published articles in local newspapers. She was sixty-seven years old when she finally returned to her birthplace to inherit the family’s house and other assets. She decided to stay, supporting herself by selling her homemade sweet treats. In her poem, “Aninha and Her Stones,” she writes:

Recreate your life, always, always.
Remove the stones, plant rose bushes and make sweets.
Begin again.
Make of your meager life
a poem.

After learning to type at seventy years old, Cora Coralina compiled her first poetry collection into a book format, titled Poemas dos Becos de Goiás e Estórias Mais / The Alleyways of Goiás and More Stories, published five years later in 1965. At seventy-five years old, Aninha, the girl born to write, held her first printed book of poems in her hands. As she encourages the young men in “Aninha’s Offerings (to young men)”:

[Time] has taught me to love life.
To not give up the fight.
To start again after defeat.
To renounce negative words and thoughts.
To believe in human values.
To be optimistic.

Her second book followed in 1976. Then, in 1980, Brazil’s most influential poet at the time, Carlos Drummond de Andrade (1972-1987) discovered Cora’s poetry, spreading interest in her work across Brazil. Her authenticity as a poet spoke much louder than her poor grammar. Her third collection, published in 1983, was well received by literary critics and poetry lovers. Her fourth collection was released in 1985. That same year, at 96 years old, she died of pneumonia.

In the featured poem, “Saber Viver / Learn to Live,” Cora Coralina calls on us to reach out to others in need; to offer the smallest of human kindness. Only this, she says, gives meaning to our lives, however long we may live on this Earth.

I don’t know… If life is short
or too long for us
but I know that nothing we endure
makes sense, if we don’t touch people’s hearts.

[…]

And this is not something from another world.
It’s what gives meaning to life.
It’s what makes life
not short
not too long,
But it would be intense
True, pure…
While it lasts.

To read the complete featured poem “Learn to Live / Saber Viver” in English and the original Portuguese and learn more about the work and awards received by Brazilian poet Cora Coralina, go to my Poetry Corner June 2026.