Abstract

Kindness is the Smallest Thing in the World is a record of lived time in poetry format. Each of its forty entries were written in chronological time to be left unedited with the intention of building a feeling journey that could account for itself, and, so, show itself. On paper, it loosely tells the story of a seed that encounters hidden knowledge of its own being, and must go through multiple iterations of its own growth and fall to situate itself in community and kinship. Along the way, poems question concepts like the self, self expression, the exponential development of civilization, selfishness, natural spaces, climate change, nostalgic stories, community and isolation, treating them more like potential mirrors to move on from each time than any tangible or outward reality. In this way, Kindness is the Smallest Thing in the World is inspired by the work of William Blake and by The Odyssey.