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I couldn't say it better.
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Small Kindnesses: A Collaborative Poem by Teenagers From Around the World
Compiled by Danusha Laméris
From The New York Times Learning Network
April 28, 2022
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Kindness is neighbors saying “Buenos Dias”
It’s the man in the red shirt helping the woman in the floral blouse cross the street
It’s the way my heart sings when I’m smiling at a baby, and their mom notices and lifts up the baby’s sweet little hand and waves it at me
A friend patiently waiting as you quickly tie your loose shoelaces, while everyone continues walking
A slight buzz in your jean pockets indicating messages from friends appearing out of the blue, questioning how you might be feeling that day, written in text abbreviations, the shared teenage experience
Getting woken up at my bus stop
Letting somebody have the last cookie and then they insist on splitting it in half
Chamomile tea, placed on my bedside table, sweet honey resting at the bottom of the cup
Kindness is a seed. It starts trivial and trifling
It’s the wheezing, ugly laugh that melts two people together
The crinkle in someone’s eyes behind their mask as they wave back
The warm smile that the old crossing guard gives when I greet him in the morning and wave goodbye in the afternoon
Swarming aisles at the grocery store with strangers letting you pass, a simple hand gesture saying “go ahead”
The crooked teeth gleaming through a wrinkled smile when the elderly woman next door nods her head
In elevators, it’s how one passenger seamlessly assumes the role of the old-time operator, pushing all our floors
It’s when you’re struggling with your hair, so the woman on the train offers to braid it and strand by strand, kindness by kindness, you think the world is not so bad after all
Kindness feels like a freshly bloomed flower in a field of lonely grass
A smile of sunflowers chasing the light, golden petals pressed forever in the pages
It’s when people I barely know give me nicknames
It’s matching my energy
Buying yourself flowers
Waving back to little kids in public
It’s when, in traffic, waiting with your blinker on for a safe time to switch lanes, someone waves you to go in front of them
The cafeteria lady saying “thank you” to each person as they buy their meals
Opening up a handwritten letter from your friend instead of a text
And sometimes, especially during the pandemic, the way you say a short prayer for whoever is in the blaring red and white ambulance, when you walk by
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I feel your kindness in how you don’t mind when I look off while I speak
When my sister sets the table when it’s my turn
When I walk my dog and the people with bigger dogs cross to the other side of the street, smiling at me, avoiding a barking mess between our dogs, knowing how nervous my dog can be
When someone lets me know that the clasp of my necklace has rotated to the front
When I recommend my favorite book to someone at the library and they check it out because of how much I love the characters
When my sister taps me on the shoulder and says I saved my last fry for you
When I share little tidbits about my day, and your dark, loamy eyes widen with curiosity
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I think about the girl in my history class who hardly speaks complimenting my shoes
Of how, during performances for my high school orchestra, our conductor will gaze around at all of us before each piece and if any of us looks nervous, make eye contact and give us a subtle nod as if to say “everything’s okay”
Of the soft-spoken singer who leaves her rusty blue window open when she sings
Of having someone compliment an article of clothing that you were maybe unsure of before
Of how the 6:42 a.m. nod from my train conductor in the dark, early winter mornings tells me in unspoken words that he wishes me a good day
How the guard at Fordham University’s station house knowing my name amongst a flood of students passing by him and fist-bumps me saying, “Take it easy today, Carmine”
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I love when my friends include me in conversations when I go quiet.
The respectful muffled voices we find in the library, only found as we walk through that large, rough wood door
When a stranger asks, “Which floor are you headed to?” as you walk into the elevator
When a woman goes to the animal shelter and makes small talk with the dogs
When the random couple at Walmart warns me, “Your shoes are untied”
When you walk into your friend’s house and hear their mother say “hi” like you are their own
When someone whispers to you that your mascara is smudged, or your shirt is buttoned wrong, to save you embarrassment later in the day
When you say something so sweet and plentiful it makes me want to cry it makes me smile and want to stay awhile longer makes my heart want to beat stronger
When I buy ice tea with 4 quarters 12 dimes 4 pennies and the man at the cash register thanks me for the extra change
When a woman pays for the BBQ chips that me and my friend could not afford
When guards in my apartment building hold the door for me and say “morning”
When the barista at the coffee shop remembers my name
When I’m buying something and I’m a few cents or a dollar short and the cashier lets me go
When, instead of speeding down the street, you halt at the bright red sign and let me walk by, nodding your head as a sign of recognition
When a stranger holds open a door when I still have a long distance to cover before I enter, yet they continue to smile while I speed-walk to the door
When a stranger compliments my smile, not knowing I hide it
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What kindness can do to help this ruined world
It’s been five days that I’ve been driving to school and I still go five under the speed limit and I haven’t been honked at by all the people who could and should have honked at me
Through the poisonous social media, those two taps on a glass screen little as a thumb twitching the tiny but powerful empty heart glows pink
No one is forcing that person to hold open that door, they just are. And they’re doing it for me
Walking to the bus on a gloomy day, someone compliments me and emboldens me with the flame to take on the day
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Here’s to the kid who takes everyone’s soccer bags and stuffs them under the bleachers when it starts to rain so they don’t get wet. Bless you
To the little conversations between dog walkers, the unspoken words: “Hello! You can pet my dog if you like. They’re very friendly. We can trust each other.”
To the person who stood up for me in first grade. To the person who tipped extra on that lemonade
To the driver of the purple Toyota sedan who waved our car at the stop sign to go before them, and we waved back to say thank you
To the stranger who said the color purple looks good on me
The friendly neighbor who always waves, rejoices when they manage to etch a grin onto your face
To the shopper who gave me their shopping cart outside the grocery store, so I saved a quarter
To the cashier who checked the bottoms of my strawberry packages to ensure I wasn’t getting any rotten ones
To my friend who hums lightly while hugging me. Her raspy voice cracks but she keeps singing. She doesn’t ask me questions, she doesn’t talk. She just sits there quietly humming
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A small act of kindness is giving someone a high five, even if they didn’t do something awesome
Paying for the person behind you can create a chain stronger than metal
Someone out there cares about your well-being, Even if it’s just for a second, they care
I find such grandeur, in milliseconds of joy
Perhaps kindness works best when it goes both ways. Like when you reply “You too” after somebody says “Have a nice day”
The smallest of things can beget colossal change
Kindness comes back within hours
Pessimism, sadness, gloom. Then someone tells me, “After you.” They will not think of it again, but I will.
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Thank you to these poets:
(A list of young people’s names that can be found online, for this article)

And, finally, thank you to our Learning Network readers, who helped choose the lines for this poem:
(A short list of readers’ names that can be found online, for this article)
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Poem: Small Kindnesses
By Danusha Laméris
Selected by Naomi Shihab Nye
From The New York Times Magazine
Sept. 19, 2019
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Sometimes a poem just strikes a precise moment. “Small Kindnesses,” by Danusha Laméris, feels utterly necessary for our time — a poem celebrating minor, automatic graciousness within a community, which can shine a penetrating light. It’s a catalog of small encouragements, unfolding as might a child’s palm filled with shiny stones. It almost feels like another hope we remember having. Acknowledging the modern plight of autonomy and so many separations, the poem then easily passes through them, breezing compliments and simple care. Selected by Naomi Shihab Nye
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Small Kindnesses
By Danusha Laméris
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I’ve been thinking about the way, when you walk
down a crowded aisle, people pull in their legs
to let you by. Or how strangers still say “bless you”
when someone sneezes, a leftover
from the Bubonic plague. “Don’t die,” we are saying.
And sometimes, when you spill lemons
from your grocery bag, someone else will help you
pick them up. Mostly, we don’t want to harm each other.
We want to be handed our cup of coffee hot,
and to say thank you to the person handing it. To smile
at them and for them to smile back. For the waitress
to call us honey when she sets down the bowl of clam chowder,
and for the driver in the red pick-up truck to let us pass.
We have so little of each other, now. So far
from tribe and fire. Only these brief moments of exchange.
What if they are the true dwelling of the holy, these
fleeting temples we make together when we say, “Here,
have my seat,” “Go ahead — you first,” “I like your hat.”
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Naomi Shihab Nye is the 2019-21 Young People’s Poet Laureate of the Poetry Foundation, Chicago.
Danusha Laméris is poet laureate of Santa Cruz County, Calif.
Her next book, “Bonfire Opera,” will be published by the University of Pittsburgh Press.