A POETRY Contest HOSTED IN PARTNERSHIP WITH
CHANNEL KINDNESS & Born This Way Foundation

Grandmother’s hands, cups of tea, smiling strangers… four Girls Write Now mentees share poetry about the ways they give and receive kindness, selected by a panel of Channel Kindness judges.

pretty and warm and good

By Sanya Afsar

HONORABLE MENTION

From the CHANNEL KINDNESS judge’s panel:

It isn’t every day that you read a poem that touches you so deeply that you can’t wait to read it again. This is exactly the case with “pretty and warm and good.” With so much honest language and well thought out stanzas, this poem invites readers into the feeling of what kindness can be and the power it can hold, especially when we are kind to ourselves.

kindness is a dubious thing
a compliment or a word of encouragement 
more suspicious than any insult or blackmail 

i don’t know how to receive kindness
i’m distrusting of its equivocal intentions 
a slander disguised as a friendly word 
a betrayal disguised as a helping hand 
a backbite disguised as a worried chat 

i’m used to doing things alone
to living in a dismissive world 
so when someone tells me
they think i’m pretty
they think i’m warm 
they think i’m good 
i just don’t understand 

because i didn’t grow up with it
and i didn’t give it to myself
i didn’t allow myself the gift of 
care or understanding or affection 

i don’t think 
i’m pretty or warm or good 
i don’t feel comfort 
in my own self 
so when someone else does
my walls stare at each other 
in confusion, in uncertainty 
of how to treat this unknown stranger
named kindness 

but it's beautiful 
it’s wonderful 

it is an art
a form of love
between even strangers 
telling you your bag is unzipped on the train
or opening the door for you on their way out

it’s an act formed purely out of goodwill
a human helping a human
for no reason unfavorable

for if there were some
hidden ill-intent 
then it wouldn’t really 
be kindness
after all

so i’ll let you call me pretty
and i’ll let you call me warm
i’ll let you call me good 
and i’ll let you build me up 

because when those who surround you 
give you that gift of kindness 
then you, too, start to think 
that you’re pretty 
and you’re warm 
and you’re good 
and nothing can be kinder than that 

A Poetry Contest & Story Collection

When you think about kindness, what sights and sounds come to mind? How do you encapsulate such grand feelings of compassion? Girls Write Now mentees and alumni rose to the challenge in the Art of Kindness Poetry Contest, hosted in partnership with Channel Kindness and Lady Gaga’s Born This Way Foundation.

ABOUT CHANNEL KINDNESS READ MORE POEMS