‘And the people stayed home’ — the coronavirus poem that has gone viral

Kitty O’Meara, a former teacher and chaplain in the US, has penned a “prose poem” on the lockdowns caused by the coronavirus pandemic.

The viral poem, which offers an introspective and perspective reading of the self-isolation, has now been titled: “And the people stayed home.”

Below is the poem in full.

And the people stayed home. And read books, and listened, and rested, and exercised, and made art, and played games, and learned new ways of being, and were still. And listened more deeply. Some meditated, some prayed, some danced. Some met their shadows. And the people began to think differently.

And the people healed. And, in the absence of people living in ignorant, dangerous, mindless, and heartless ways, the earth began to heal.

And when the danger passed, and the people joined together again, they grieved their losses, and made new choices, and dreamed new images, and created new ways to live and heal the earth fully, as they had been healed.