Fact vs Fiction on the Internet + A COVID-19 Poem

You can't believe everything you read... especially when it was found on the Internet. This poem is proof of that.

I came across a viral poem a few days ago and bookmarked the social media post because I wanted to share it with you. However, knowing that content is often posted with misleading information or all-together faked, I held off until I had some time to dig deeper. 

It's a good thing I did, because according to the source floating around on Facebook, the poem was written "in 1869 by Kathleen O'Mara." The meme also said that the poem was "... reprinted during Influenza Pandemic of 1918... photo taken during this time..."

All this information is FALSE.

Snopes.com is a fact-checking resource that I've used in the past. Their editors confirmed that the poem titled "In the Time of Pandemic" was actually written about the COVID-19 pandemic and published to the author's website on March 16, 2020. 

Now that that's out of the way, here's the poem. Please enjoy and share with friends if you do.

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In the Time of Pandemic

And people stayed at home
And read books
And listened
And they rested
And did exercises
And made art and played
And learned new ways of being
And stopped and listened
More deeply
Someone meditated, someone prayed
Someone met their shadow
And people began to think differently
And people healed.
And in the absence of people who
Lived in ignorant ways
Dangerous, meaningless and heartless,
The earth also began to heal
And when the danger ended and
People found themselves
They grieved for the dead
And made new choices
And dreamed of new visions
And created new ways of living
And completely healed the earth
Just as they were healed.

By Catherine M. O’Meara