Morning fire ignites the sky
as day begins anew.
Somber earth meets riotous
stain of color so magnificent
I barely believe my eyes.

Full moon shines
through naked limbs.
Luminous in obsidian sky.

River so smooth I hear fish jump
as day slides carelessly into night.
Sky and trees echo one another
in mirrored surface –
Light and dark in perfect pairing.

You are beautiful both inside and out. Many people tell you this – believe them.

You are smart, strong, and wise beyond your years, yet you have much to learn.

Rely on yourself, have confidence, and stop worrying so much about what others think.

Follow your dreams – become a teacher. Don’t let others discourage you with their fears for your future.

Accept yourself as you accept others.

Your heart is huge and has a great capacity for love – never be afraid to use it.

You are capable. Be self-reliant and stop waiting for others to approve of you. It’s just not necessary.

Enjoy all that your diverse family has to offer, and the experiences provided to you. Your Mom is smart, kind, wise, and brutally honest. You are lucky.

Follow your dreams – don’t worry about what everyone else is doing.

Love yourself and your family. Spend time with them – for one day – you don’t know when – they’ll be gone and you’ll miss them horribly.

You are beautiful both inside and out. Love yourself as much as you love others.

Love as much as you possibly can. Live life to its fullest. And, always be confident in you.

Never ever sell yourself short.

I have endured things that have shattered me and could

have left me broken, but they didn’t.

I am resilient –

I endured our house burning to the ground.

I am resilient –

I have endured pain, loss, and sorrow that have knocked me to my knees, but I rose again.

I am resilient –

I have endured decades of living and loving and loss.

I am resilient.

I have survived a bus tumbling over an embankment in the Smoky

Mountains after the driver went to sleep.

I am resilient –

I have endured physical pain – broken bones, split body parts that required stitches, autoimmune disorders.

I have stepped on rusty nails, fallen off bicycles, had a finger and a leg slammed in a car door. I’ve had black eyes and bruises too numerous to count.

I am resilient –

I have endured emotional pain – the loss of 2 children, my father, my mother and my favorite aunt.

I am resilient –

I have endured divorce.

I am resilient –

I have endured precancerous cells in my cervix.

I am resilient –

I have endured 26 years of teaching middle school.

I am resilient –

I can be bent, but not broken, knocked down, but not kept down –  I get up again and keep moving forward.

My spirit is supple – I am strong.

I love life – the hard times have made me appreciate the better times. I love nature – it sustains and restores me –  its scents, sounds, and sights fill me when I begin to feel empty.

Nature nourishes me, and reinforces my resilience.

I am resilient. I am strong. I am irrepressible.

Maybe I’m a teacher because I love touching the lives of others.

Perhaps like my Mom – I just like people.

She touched so many lives in such positive ways – countless numbers

of my friends have told me how she impacted them and helped shape them-

how she was their other mother. We told story after story the other night –

many of them funny, but some of them serious about times spent

with her and around her. I know she’d have loved that.

She taught me to positively impact the lives of others,

to leave others better than I found them, or at least try.

I think I found the best way to do that when I chose to become

a teacher. And, I know middle schoolers need me most.

They need the calm, honest presence I give them each

and every day. They need my wisdom and guidance.

They need so much that I willingly share.

And, I in turn need them right back!

Sparkling diamonds shine down on us

from midnight blue sky –

from inky black sky –

pinpricks of light travel many

years to present their glimmering glory

in dark night.

Bright gems glow above –

Gleaming jewels decorate night sky.

One has to be willing to shift perspective

when approaching poetry.

It’s like climbing to the mountain top

to see how the view changes.

I think of poetry as a poet’s

soul distilled on paper. Poets

are trying to convey something meaningful

by allowing you to peek

inside to see what makes them tick.

Or, they’re trying to get you to

look at an idea in a brand new way –

shift patterns of thinking so that

you are presented with treasured new

gifts by looking through unfamiliar

lenses – an old idea seeming brand new –

catching a glimpse of the unexpected.

Perhaps, if you allow, a poem will speak

to you each time in a unique  way;

giving you countless sojourns

through the poet’s mind, soul, and spirit.

Nice sounds – there for the noticing:

Church bells in the distance,

A smile in someone’s words,

Beautiful music,

A child’s sweet voice,

Train whistles at night,

Bird song at daybreak,

A baby’s belly laugh,

Wind in the tree tops,

Tires crunching on gravel,

Sharpening of a pencil,

A gurgling brook rushing downstream,

The bounce of a basketball and

the squeak of shoes on hardwood,

The snort of a startled deer,

A tennis ball hitting the strings of a racket,

The crunchy squeak of snow,

And, lest we forget, the sound of nothing at all.

Silence – ever elusive – why are we so afraid of

being alone with the stillness of our thoughts?