My Poem of the Month for January

Hi everyone,

Our word for January is crowned (or crowned one) and I could think of no better way to put it to use than to remember Cory Corrado, whose full name was the inspiration for my choice. The picture was taken in 2011 in the farmhouse where the founders of Highlights for Children once lived, a few miles from Honesdale, Pennsylvania at Boyds Mills.

Crowned One

We didn’t know that Cory stood for crowned.
Technically it didn’t, but Incoronata did,
the name she brought from Italy,
the land of her birth,
		which we didn’t know either,
until she left us and we read about her
and learned she was Italian not Canadian,
and had a long name with special meaning.

What we did know was, with Cory
we could count on kindness,
a helping hand, a picture to consider,
a friendship for life.

Incoronata (Cory) Corrado – our poetic,
wide-eyed friend crowned with black-maned
beauty –
we who knew you will remember.
			
(c) 2026 David L. Harrison