Justice for Freddie Gray – Victim of Police Brutality – Baltimore/USA – April 2015
Source: Common Dreams (Photo courtesy of Ryan Harvey)

As yet another African-American community erupts in the face of police brutality, I offer the poetic wisdom of Brazilian educator and poet, Flora Egídio Thomé (1930-2014). In my Poetry Corner May 2015, I feature six Haiku poems from her collection In the Waters of Time (Nas Águas do Tempo), published in 2002.

The title of her collection alludes to the fluidity of time.

Born in times of water
in the waters of time I am…
drifting alone.

Water gives life to our planet. The oceans cover 71 percent of the Earth’s surface. Even our bodies are composed of water: 60 percent in adult men and 55 percent in adult women. Because of this life-giving water, we exist and experience time.
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