News release

City Shares Message of Hope with New Video Featuring the City’s Former Poet Laureate Wali Shah

COVID-19 | May 20, 2020

From making music on our balconies to putting colourful posters in our windows, we continue to find ways as a community to send messages of hope during COVID-19.

The City of Mississauga has released a video featuring a new poem by spoken word poet, public speaker and Mississauga’s former Poet Laureate Wali Shah. Titled Thank You, Mississauga, Wali Shah’s poem is about life during the COVID-19 pandemic and community coming together and supporting each other while staying apart.

Watch Thank You, Mississauga 

 Thank You, Mississauga

by Wali Shah

We thought the world would end,
Instead, we fought to make it better.
It’s when we were separated most,
That we truly came together.

Sometimes we lose sight of our blessings,
When we’re accustomed to so many.
Funny that our vision became clear,
In the year, 2020.

Though jobs were lost,
And relationships were broken,
Though we were locked inside our homes,
Our hearts, began to open.

First we responded to the call,
Now we call each other tons.
We were running out of time,
Now we’re timing all our runs.

It’s when parks were closed,
That we truly found the path.
It’s when schools were shutdown,
That we truly did the math.

We settled our divisions,
And multiplied our care,
We added time to the front-line,
In helping them prepare.

We became heroes who risked it all,
So our neighbour still survives.
It’s when we couldn’t hold our loved ones,
That our distance touched their lives.

Regardless of our beliefs, we put faith over fear.
Knowing tomorrow we’ll gather again, to celebrate
and cheer.

We are a community of heroes,
It’s no doubt we’ll be fine.

It isn’t a matter of it,
It’s just a matter of time.

 

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City of Mississauga Media Relations
media@mississauga.ca
905-615-3200, ext. 5232
TTY: 905-896-5151