September 11: Dreamers, Poet of the Week, Gabriela Mistral, "Tiny Feet"

Since it is Nobel Prize season, I've selected Gabriela Mistral as Poet of the week.  In 1945, Mistral was the first Latin American writer to receive the Nobel Prize in Literature. 

Mistral was a Chilean educator and diplomat.  In particular, she concerned herself with the plight of children in her work, placing hope in the youth of the world. 

She seems like a voice of reason for the United States at the moment, where the future of thousands of immigrant children and young adults hang in the balance.

Saint Marty salutes Dreamers this evening.

Tiny Feet

by:  Grabriela Mistral

A child's tiny feet,
Blue, blue with cold,
How can they see and not protect you?
Oh, my God!

Tiny wounded feet,
Bruised all over by pebbles,
Abused by snow and soil!

Man, being blind, ignores
that where you step, you leave
A blossom of bright light,
that where you have placed
your bleeding little soles
a redolent tuberose grows.

Since, however, you walk
through the streets so straight,
you are courageous, without fault.

Child's tiny feet,
Two suffering little gems,
How can the people pass, unseeing.