FAVORITE+POETRY

Simple

There is nothing just as simple As a person’s simple cheek So plain and so detectable: The face of one’s physique.

There is nothing just as simple Sunken, hollow, and worn down He has no food for his kids He searches desperately downtown.

There is nothing just as simple As the makeup covered bruise. Left their by her father, From a smack, brutal abuse.

There is nothing just as simple As the worry wrinkles of a mom. Three crazy boys who like to meddle She just cannot keep them calm.

There is nothing just as simple As the smile lines and curves The owner of these cheeks has dimples A happy life which he deserves.

There is nothing just as simple as lips so soft and ever meek from her boyfriend placing lightly a kiss upon her cheek.

There is nothing just as simple Yet utterly complex, The cheek tells secrets of the owner Stories no one would expect.

There is nothing just as simple, As these, on faces, for all to see. Yet some still overlook, The simple stories of the cheek. -Grace Laiveling

 Child Soldiers By: Courtney C. Eaton Their eyes tell silent stories. Stories that would shock even the darkest of hearts. These eyes have seen worse than some could even dream of. They’ve seen killing and death, and pain and suffering to extents that can be hard to imagine. Eyes that should be learning how to read are instead being taught how to fight. Emotionless eyes are being forced to kill in gruesome ways. Eyes that seem to have run out of tears, because crying never helped. Their sobs are unheard, their tears are unseen. Children who are innocent are being ruined by men who see no hope in their government. Men who are willing to take advantage of an irreplaceable innocence. The eyes are deep brown. A brown so deep you could get lost in it. Eyes that catch attention for their beauty. They silently tell of innocence lost and of silent tears cried. These are the eyes of a child soldier.

-Emily Reiring For if dreams die Life is a broken-winged bird That cannot fly. Hold fast to dreams For when dreams go Life is a barren field Frozen with snow.
 * || **Dreams** ||  ||   ||
 * ||  || Hold fast to dreams

- Langston Hughes

Jaime Smith ||  ||

 At this moment there are 6,470,818,671 people in the world. Some are running scared. Some are coming home. Some tell lies to make it through the day. Others are just not facing the truth. Some are evil men, at war with good. And some are good, struggling with evil. Six billion people in the world, six billion souls. And sometimes... all you need is one. -One Tree Hill - Kelsey Groll **Stories of the Eye** Deep blue eyes gaze intently into the eyes of the person staring back, Searching through their soul to find things no one has before. One eye filled with a story that veered the soul into a different track, That the people all around chose to ignore… The eyes that told the stories. The memories of the dark past of being all alone, Are centered in the black circle of the eye. With each scar, that circle had grown, Into something that would only leave people asking why. The eyes that told the stories. The eye's beautiful blue wonders swimming around, Were filled with hope that life would come together. And each and every day new hope was found, Making those blue beauties shine better than ever. The eyes that told the stories. Tears slowly roll off each eyelash, and glisten down the cheek, As I take one last look in the mirror, I finally found the me that I seek. The eyes that told the stories… -Amanda Boeing  <span style="display: block; font-family: Garamond; font-size: 20px; padding-bottom: 15px; padding-left: 56px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">Where the Sidewalk Ends by Shel Silverstein <span style="display: block; font-family: Garamond; font-size: 20px; padding-bottom: 15px; padding-left: 56px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"> There is a place where the sidewalk ends And before the street begins, And there the grass grows soft and white, And there the sun burns crimson bright, And there the moon-bird rests from his flight To cool in the peppermint wind.

Let us leave this place where the smoke blows black And the dark street winds and bends. Past the pits where the asphalt flowers grow We shall walk with a walk that is measured and slow, And watch where the chalk-white arrows go To the place where the sidewalk ends.

Yes we'll walk with a walk that is measured and slow, And we'll go where the chalk-white arrows go, For the children, they mark, and the children, they know The place where the sidewalk ends. <span style="display: block; font-family: Garamond; font-size: 20px; padding-bottom: 15px; padding-left: 56px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"> - Danielle Drinkuth <span style="display: block; font-family: Garamond; font-size: 20px; padding-bottom: 15px; padding-left: 56px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">//**Stars**////**<span style="font-family: Garamond,'Times New Roman'; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal;">Robert Frost **// <span style="display: block; font-size: 20px; padding-bottom: 10px; padding-left: 56px; padding-right: 56px; padding-top: 10px; position: relative;">How countlessly they congregate <span style="display: block; font-size: 20px; padding-bottom: 10px; padding-left: 56px; padding-right: 56px; padding-top: 10px; position: relative;">O'er our tumultuous snow, <span style="display: block; font-size: 20px; padding-bottom: 10px; padding-left: 56px; padding-right: 56px; padding-top: 10px; position: relative;">Which flows in shapes as tall as trees <span style="display: block; font-size: 20px; padding-bottom: 10px; padding-left: 56px; padding-right: 56px; padding-top: 10px; position: relative;">When wintry winds do blow!--

<span style="display: block; font-size: 20px; padding-bottom: 10px; padding-left: 56px; padding-right: 56px; padding-top: 10px; position: relative;">As if with keeness for our fate, <span style="display: block; font-size: 20px; padding-bottom: 10px; padding-left: 56px; padding-right: 56px; padding-top: 10px; position: relative;">Our faltering few steps on <span style="display: block; font-size: 20px; padding-bottom: 10px; padding-left: 56px; padding-right: 56px; padding-top: 10px; position: relative;">To white rest, and a place of rest <span style="display: block; font-size: 20px; padding-bottom: 10px; padding-left: 56px; padding-right: 56px; padding-top: 10px; position: relative;">Invisible at dawn,--

<span style="display: block; font-size: 20px; padding-bottom: 10px; padding-left: 56px; padding-right: 56px; padding-top: 10px; position: relative;">And yet with neither love nor hate, <span style="display: block; font-size: 20px; padding-bottom: 10px; padding-left: 56px; padding-right: 56px; padding-top: 10px; position: relative;">Those stars like some snow-white <span style="display: block; font-size: 20px; padding-bottom: 10px; padding-left: 56px; padding-right: 56px; padding-top: 10px; position: relative;">Minerva's snow-white marble eyes <span style="display: block; font-size: 20px; padding-bottom: 10px; padding-left: 56px; padding-right: 56px; padding-top: 10px; position: relative;">Without the gift of sight.

<span style="display: block; font-size: 20px; padding-bottom: 10px; padding-left: 56px; padding-right: 56px; padding-top: 10px; position: relative;">-Lisa D'Lima

code Stopping By Woods On A Snowy Evening

Whose woods these are I think I know. His house is in the village, though; He will not see me stopping here To watch his woods fill up with snow.

My little horse must think it's queer To stop without a farmhouse near Between the woods and frozen lake The darkest evening of the year.

He gives his harness bells a shake To ask if there's some mistake. The only other sound's the sweep Of easy wind and downy flake.

The woods are lovely, dark, and deep, But I have promises to keep, And miles to go before I sleep, And miles to go before I sleep.

code - Katie McCarthy

** Fifteen ** ** William Stafford **

South of the Bridge on Seventeenth I found back of the willows one summer day a motorcycle with engine running as it lay on its side, ticking over slowly in the high grass. I was fifteen.

I admired all that pulsing gleam, the shiny flanks, the demure headlights fringed where it lay; I led it gently to the road and stood with that companion, ready and friendly. I was fifteen.

We could find the end of a road, meet the sky on out Seventeenth. I thought about hills, and patting the handle got back a confident opinion. On the bridge we indulged a forward feeling, a tremble. I was fifteen.

Thinking, back farther in the grass I found the owner, just coming to, where he had flipped over the rail. He had blood on his hand, was pale— I helped him walk to his machine. He ran his hand over it, called me a good man, roared away.

I stood there, fifteen.

- Regina Squeri

__Unnamed__ Chittering monkey. In the spring he climbs treetops, to think himself tall. Katie Feeney

Another Stupid Love Poem

Sigh Lips meet, knees collapse Love thick in the air Stars in eyes Sideways glance Knowing smile Another stolen kiss And another And still more Shortness of breath She's falling for him fast No turning back Realize TAP Waiting for him to call Waiting Oh so still Pencil snaps Telling herself she will not cry Words without meaning Tears fall elegantly from her eyes Trying to stay dignified She looks around Nobody's here Silent sobs Why does she do this to herself? Pointless BOOM Bass plays Sad songs echoing from the stereo The same song over and over And over again This is the song that reminds her.. Of him She was played Game over Looks at her cell phone Screen is black as her heart Sad tired eyes Still waiting Wishing Denial No sound at all Surprise Heart breaking Still kind of waiting Lying to herself But only halfway He is never coming back Moving on Attempting Still fighting… Haven’t moved an inch Sigh Tap Boom Cry Silence -Sydney Roll

One sister for sale! One sister for sale! One crying and spying young sister for sale! I’m really not kidding, So who’ll start the bidding? Do I hear the dollar? A nickel? A penny? Oh, isn’t there, isn’t there, isn’t there any One kid that will buy this old sister for sale, This crying and spying young sister for sale? <span style="color: #333333; font-family: 'Luxi Mono',FreeMono,monospace; line-height: 15px;">- Emily Heine :)
 * <span style="color: #333333; font-family: 'Luxi Mono',FreeMono,monospace; line-height: 15px;">For Sale **
 * <span style="color: #333333; font-family: 'Luxi Mono',FreeMono,monospace; line-height: 15px;">Shel Silverstein **

<span style="color: #333333; font-family: 'Luxi Mono',FreeMono,monospace; line-height: 15px;">Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night <span style="border-collapse: collapse; color: #050505; font-family: 'trebuchet ms',tahoma,sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;">Do not go gentle into that good night, Old age should burn and rave at close of day; Rage, rage against the dying of the light. Though wise men at their end know dark is right, Because their words had forked no lightning they Do not go gentle into that good night. Good men, the last wave by, crying how bright Their frail deeds might have danced in a green bay, Rage, rage against the dying of the light. Wild men who caught and sang the sun in flight, And learn, too late, they grieve it on its way, Do not go gentle into that good night. Grave men, near death, who see with blinding sight Blind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay, Rage, rage against the dying of the light. And you, my father, there on the sad height, Curse, bless, me now with your fierce tears, I pray. Do not go gentle into that good night. Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

- Dylan ThomasHayley Kirley Saying Your NamesRichard Siken <span style="color: #333333; font-family: georgia,'times new roman',times,hiraminpro-w3,'ms mincho',serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">Chemical names, bird names, names of fireand flight and snow, baby names, paint names, <span style="color: #333333; display: block; font-family: georgia,'times new roman',times,hiraminpro-w3,'ms mincho',serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">delicate names like bones in the body, <span style="color: #333333; display: block; font-family: georgia,'times new roman',times,hiraminpro-w3,'ms mincho',serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">Rumplestiltskin names that are always changing, <span style="color: #333333; display: block; font-family: georgia,'times new roman',times,hiraminpro-w3,'ms mincho',serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">names that no one's ever able to figure out. <span style="color: #333333; display: block; font-family: georgia,'times new roman',times,hiraminpro-w3,'ms mincho',serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">Names of spells and names of hexes, names <span style="color: #333333; display: block; font-family: georgia,'times new roman',times,hiraminpro-w3,'ms mincho',serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">cursed quietly under the breath, or called out <span style="color: #333333; display: block; font-family: georgia,'times new roman',times,hiraminpro-w3,'ms mincho',serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">loudly to fill the yard, calling you inside again, <span style="color: #333333; display: block; font-family: georgia,'times new roman',times,hiraminpro-w3,'ms mincho',serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">calling you home. Nicknames and pet names <span style="color: #333333; display: block; font-family: georgia,'times new roman',times,hiraminpro-w3,'ms mincho',serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">and Baroque French monikers, written in <span style="color: #333333; display: block; font-family: georgia,'times new roman',times,hiraminpro-w3,'ms mincho',serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">shorthand, written in longhand, scrawled <span style="color: #333333; display: block; font-family: georgia,'times new roman',times,hiraminpro-w3,'ms mincho',serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">ilegibly in brown ink on the backs of yellowing <span style="color: #333333; display: block; font-family: georgia,'times new roman',times,hiraminpro-w3,'ms mincho',serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">photographs, or embossed on envelopes lined <span style="color: #333333; display: block; font-family: georgia,'times new roman',times,hiraminpro-w3,'ms mincho',serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">with gold. Names called out across the water, <span style="color: #333333; display: block; font-family: georgia,'times new roman',times,hiraminpro-w3,'ms mincho',serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">names I called you behind your back, <span style="color: #333333; display: block; font-family: georgia,'times new roman',times,hiraminpro-w3,'ms mincho',serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">sour and delicious, secret and unrepetable, <span style="color: #333333; display: block; font-family: georgia,'times new roman',times,hiraminpro-w3,'ms mincho',serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">the names of flowers that open only once, <span style="color: #333333; display: block; font-family: georgia,'times new roman',times,hiraminpro-w3,'ms mincho',serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">shouted from balconies, shouted from rooftops, <span style="color: #333333; display: block; font-family: georgia,'times new roman',times,hiraminpro-w3,'ms mincho',serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">or muffled by pillows, or whispered in sleep, <span style="color: #333333; display: block; font-family: georgia,'times new roman',times,hiraminpro-w3,'ms mincho',serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">or caught in the throat like a lump of meat. <span style="color: #333333; display: block; font-family: georgia,'times new roman',times,hiraminpro-w3,'ms mincho',serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">I try, I do. I try and try. A happy ending? <span style="color: #333333; display: block; font-family: georgia,'times new roman',times,hiraminpro-w3,'ms mincho',serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">Sure enough - //Hello darling, welcome home.// I'll call you darling, hold you tight. We are not traitors but the lights go out. It's dark. //Sweetheart, is that you?// There are no tears, no pictures of him squarely. A seaside framed in glass, and boats, those little boats with sails aflutter, shining lights upon the water, lights that splinter when they hit the pier. His voice on tape, his name on the envelope, the soft sound of a body falling off a bridge behind you, the body hardly even makes a sound. The waters of the dead, a clear road, every lover in the form of stars, the road blocked. All night I strechted my arms across him, rivers of blood, the dark woods, singing with all my skin and bone //Please keep him safe.// //let him lay his headon my chest and we will be// //like sailors, swimming in the sound of it, dashed// //to pieces.// Makes a cathedral, him pressing against me, his lips at my neck, and yes, I do believe his mouth is heaven, his kisses falling over me like stars. Names of heat and names of light, names of collision in the dark, on the side of the bus, in the bark of the tree, in ballpoint pen on jeans and hands and backs of matchbooks that then got lost. Names like pain cries, names like tombstones, names forgotten and reinvented, names forbidden or overused. Your name like a song I sing to myself, your name like a box where I keep my love, your name like a nest in the tree of love, your name like a boat in the sea of love - O now we're in the sea of love! Your name like detergent in the washing machine. Your name like two X's like punched-in eyes, like a drunk cartoon passed out in the gutter, your name with two X's to mark the spots, to hold the place, to keep the treasure from becoming ever lost. I'm saying your name in the grocery store, I'm saying your name on the bridge at dawn. Your name like an animal covered with frost, your name like a music that's been transposed, a suit of fur, a coat of mud, a kick in the pants, a lungful of glass, the sails in wind and the slap of waves on the hull of a boat that's sinking to the sounds of mermaids singingsongsof love, and the tug of a simple profound sadness when it sounds so far away. Here is a map with your name for a capital, here is an arrow to prove a point: we laugh and it pits the world against us, we laugh, and we've got nothing left to lose, and our hearts turn red, and the river rises like a barn on fire. I came to tell you, we'll swim in the water, we'll swim like something sparkling underneath the waves. Our bodies shivering, and the sound of our breathing, and the shore so far away. I'll use my body like a ladder, climbing to the thing behind it, saying farewell to flesh, farewell to everything caught underfoot and flattened. Names of poison, names of handguns, names of places we've been together, names of people we'd be together. Names of endurance, names of devotion, street names and place names and all the names of our dark heaven crackling in their pan. It's a bed of straw, darling. It sure as shit is. //If there was one thing I could save from the fire,// he said, //the broken arms of the sycamore,// //the eucalyptus still trying to climb out of the yard -// //your breath on my neck like a music that holds// //my hands down, kisses as they burn their way// //along my spine -or rain, our bodies wet,// //clothes clinging arm to elbow, clothes clinging// //nipple to groin - I'll be right here. I'm waiting.// Say hallelujah, say goodnight, say it over the canned music and your feet won't stumble, his face getting larger, the rest blurring on every side. And angels, about twelve angels, angels knocking on your head right now, hello hello, a flash in the sky, would you like to meet him here, in Heaven? Imagine a room, a sudden glow. Here is my hand, my heart, my throat, my wrist. Here are the illuminated cities at the center of me, and here is the center of me, which is a lake, which is a well that we can drink from, but I can't go through with it. I just don't want to die anymore

<span style="color: #333333; font-family: georgia,'times new roman',times,hiraminpro-w3,'ms mincho',serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">-Nicole Key //For Winter Weather Advisories// By PWH

It is snowing outside, small, sloppy flakes swirling around with the fierce winds and sticking to the ledge out- side of my window, sort of like that lingering feeling of missing someone constantly that has fallen upon the curves of my cheeks and I wake up in the morning to remember we must start bracing ourselves against a cold winter which will blow in at different times, hitting us in different places but you can't quite predict when or where, so I have to remain on my toes, count the hopeful pockets of comfort and cross days off the calendar until something warn graces my skin again.

Abby Awad

**Hug O' War** by Shel Silverstein I will not play at tug o' war I'd rather play at hug o' war, Where everyone hugs Instead of tugs Where everyone giggles And rolls on the rug, Where everyone kisses And everyone grins And everyone cuddles And everyone wins. - Rachel Stock

//DON'T QUIT// by Edgar A. Guest When things go wrong, as they sometimes will, when the road you're trudging seems all uphill, when the funds are low and the debts are high, and you want to smile but you have to sigh, when care is pressing you down a bit - rest if you must, but don't you quit.

Life is queer with its twists and turns. As everyone of us sometimes learns. And many a fellow turns about when he might have won had he stuck it out.

Don't give up though the pace seems slow - you may succeed with another blow. Often the goal is nearer than it seems to a faint and faltering man;

often the struggler has given up when he might have captured the victor's cup; and he learned too late when the night came down, how close he was to the golden crown.

Success is failure turned inside out - the silver tint of the clouds of doubt, and when you never can tell how close you are, it may be near when it seems afar; so stick to the fight when you're hardest hit - it's when things seem worst, you must not quit. -Erin Wanger
 * Nothing Gold Can Stay**- Robert Frost

Nature's first green is gold, Her hardest hue to hold. Her early leaf's a flower; But only so an hour. Then leaf subsides to leaf. So Eden sank to grief, So dawn goes down to day. Nothing gold can stay.

-- Laura Mersmann

by //Robert Frost//
 * Stopping by the Woods on a Snowy Evening**

Whose woods these are I think I know. His house is in the village, though; He will not see me stopping here To watch his woods fill up with snow.

My little horse must think it queer To stop without a farmhouse near Between the woods and frozen lake The darkest evening of the year.

He gives his harness bells a shake To ask if there's some mistake. The only other sound's the sweep Of easy wing and downy flake.

The woods are lovely, dark and deep, But I have promises to keep, And miles to go before I sleep, And miles to go before I sleep. --- Sam Riser

**The Book Of Longing** by Leonard Cohen I can't make the hills The system is shot. I'm living on pills For which I thank God.

I followed the course From chaos to art Desire the horse Depression the cart.

I sailed like a swan I sank like a rock But time is long gone Past my laughing stock.

My page was too white My ink was too thin The day wouldn't write What the night penciled in.

My animal howls My angel's upset But I'm not allowed A trace of regret.

For someone will use What I couldn't be My heart will be hers Impersonally.

She'll step on the path She'll see what I mean My will cut in half And freedom between.

For less than a second Our lives will collide The endless suspended The door open wide.

Then she will be born To someone like you What no one has done She'll continue to do.

I know she is coming I know she will look And that is the longing And this is the book.

Molly Hartig <span style="color: #3c605b; display: block; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; padding-left: 14px; padding-top: 13px; text-align: left;">**If You Forget Me by Pablo Neruda ** I want you to know one thing.

You know how this is: if I look at the crystal moon, at the red branch of the slow autumn at my window, if I touch near the fire the impalpable ash or the wrinkled body of the log, everything carries me to you, as if everything that exists, aromas, light, metals, were little boats that sail toward those isles of yours that wait for me.

Well, now, if little by little you stop loving me I shall stop loving you little by little.

If suddenly you forget me do not look for me, for I shall already have forgotten you.

If you think it long and mad, the wind of banners that passes through my life, and you decide to leave me at the shore of the heart where I have roots, remember that on that day, at that hour, I shall lift my arms and my roots will set off to seek another land.

But if each day, each hour, you feel that you are destined for me with implacable sweetness, if each day a flower climbs up to your lips to seek me, ah my love, ah my own, in me all that fire is repeated, in me nothing is extinguished or forgotten, my love feeds on your love, beloved, and as long as you live it will be in your arms without leaving mine- Kara Rattermann

Dive for Dreams By: E.E. Cummings

dive for dreams or a slogan may topple you (trees are their roots and wind is wind) trust your heart if the seas catch fire (and live by love though the stars walk backward) honour the past but welcome the future (and dance your death away at the wedding) never mind a world with its villains or heroes (for good likes girls and tomorrow and the earth) in spite of everything which breathes and moves, since Doom (with white longest hands neating each crease) will smooth entirely our minds -before leaving my room I turn, and (stooping through the morning) kiss this pillow, dear where our heads lived and were.

silently if, out of not knowable

silently if, out of not knowable night's utmost nothing, wanders a little guess (only which is this world) more my life does not leap than with the mystery your smile sings or if (spiraling as luminous they climb oblivion) voices who are dreams, less into heaven certainly earth swims than each my deeper death becomes your kiss losing through you what seemed myself, I find selves unimaginably mine; beyond sorrow's own joys and hoping's very fears yours is the light by which my spirit's born: yours is the darkness of my soul's return -you are my sun, my moon, and all my stars

-Nicole Behler

Fifteen Crosses by Lisa Teller Not a whisper from the trees, everything was still, I felt a sadness in my heart, an empty kind of pain, Fifteen souls had gone away, only memories remained. I tried to cry out to ease my grief, Lifted my hands to heaven, prayed God's relief. Not a sound or a word, emptiness abounds, My sorrow overcoming, I began to drown. Such bitter suffocation, I wish someone could hear, Why we let this happen, in my dream nothing was clear. I shook my fist to heaven and begged for reasons why, But only silence spoke, offering no reply. No sound came from my lips even as I screamed, I prayed it's just a nightmare, an awful kind of dream. Then I heard a choir of angels beckoning from above. "The world is reaping hatred," "Because the world's not sowing love." "You should embrace each other's differences no matter what they may be," "And enlighten each other with the hope of peace and unity." When the angel finished speaking, she ended with a sigh, Gazing down at fifteen crosses of fifteen souls who said goodbye. Then the heavens opened up, the angels giving way, up to the gates of heaven, Amazing grace began to play. And as they left this Earthly realm the angels were downhearted looking back at fifteen crosses of the recently departed. A soft rain began falling, but no cloud was in the sky, Then Jesus whispered to me, "This is how the angels cry." -Sydney Vollmer ||
 * I had a dream I was kneeling, at fifteen crosses on the hill

Mending Wall By: Robert Frost Something there is that doesn't love a wall, That sends the frozen-ground-swell under it, And spills the upper boulders in the sun, And makes gaps even two can pass abreast. The work of hunters is another thing: I have come after them and made repair Where they have left not one stone on a stone, But they would have the rabbit out of hiding, To please the yelping dogs. The gaps I mean, No one has seen them made or heard them made, But at spring mending-time we find them there. I let my neighbor know beyond the hill; And on a day we meet to walk the line And set the wall between us once again. We keep the wall between us as we go. To each the boulders that have fallen to each. And some are loaves and some so nearly balls We have to use a spell to make them balance: 'Stay where you are until our backs are turned!' We wear our fingers rough with handling them. Oh, just another kind of out-door game, One on a side. It comes to little more: There where it is we do not need the wall: He is all pine and I am apple orchard. My apple trees will never get across And eat the cones under his pines, I tell him. He only says, 'Good fences make good neighbors'. Spring is the mischief in me, and I wonder If I could put a notion in his head: 'Why do they make good neighbors? Isn't it Where there are cows? But here there are no cows. Before I built a wall I'd ask to know What I was walling in or walling out, And to whom I was like to give offence. Something there is that doesn't love a wall, That wants it down.' I could say 'Elves' to him, But it's not elves exactly, and I'd rather He said it for himself. I see him there Bringing a stone grasped firmly by the top In each hand, like an old-stone savage armed. He moves in darkness as it seems to me~ Not of woods only and the shade of trees. He will not go behind his father's saying, And he likes having thought of it so well He says again, "Good fences make good neighbors." -Maggie Sollmann

The Poem from //The Perks of Being A Wallflower//

once on a yellow piece of paper with green lines he wrote a poem and he called it "Chops" because that was the name of his dog and that’s what it was all about his teacher gave him an A and a gold star and his mother hung it on the kitchen door and read it to his aunts. that was the year Father Tracy took all the kids to the zoo and he let them sing on the bus and his little sister was born with tiny nails and no hair and his mother and father kissed a lot and the girl around the corner sent him a Valentine signed with a row of X's and he had to ask his father what the X's meant and his father always tucked him in bed at night and was always there to do it

once on a piece of white paper with blue lines he wrote a poem he called it "Autumn" because that was the name of the season and that's what it was all about and his teacher gave him an A and asked him to write more clearly and his mother never hung it on the kitchen door because of the new paint and the kids told him that Father Tracy smoked cigars and left butts on the pews and sometime they would burn holes that was the year his sister got glasses with thick lenses and black frames and the girl around the corner laughed when he asked her to go see Santa Claus and the kids told him why his mother and father kissed a lot and his father never tucked him in bed at night and his father got mad when he cried for him to do it

once on a paper torn from his notebook he wrote a poem and he called it "Innocence: A Question" because that was the question about his girl and that’s what it was all about and his professor gave him an A and a strange steady look and his mother never hung it on the kitchen door because he never showed her that was the year Father Tracy died and he forgot how the end of the Apostles’ Creed went and he caught his sister making out on the back porch and his mother and father never kissed or even talked and the girl around the corner wore too much make up that made him cough when he kissed her but he kissed her anyway because it was the thing to do and at 3 am he tucked himself into bed his father snoring soundly

that's why on the back of a brown paper bag he tried another poem and he called it "Absolutely Nothing" because that's what it was really all about and he gave himself an A and a slash on each damned wrist and he hung it on the bathroom door because this time he didn’t think he could reach the kitchen - Katie Koch

A Dream Deferred By Langston Hughes What happens to a dream deferred? Does it dry up like a raisin in the sun? Or fester like a sore-- And then run? Does it stink like rotten meat? Or crust and sugar over-- like a syrupy sweet? Maybe it just sags like a heavy load. Or does it explode? - Morgan Doerflein Annabel LeeBy Edgar Allan Poe<span style="color: #333333; font-family: verdana,Arial,Tahoma,sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: normal;">It was many and many a year ago, In a kingdom by the sea, That a maiden there lived whom you may know By the name of Annabel Lee; And this maiden she lived with no other thought Than to love and be loved by me. I was a child and she was a child, In this kingdom by the sea: But we loved with a love that was more than love - I and my Annabel Lee; With a love that the winged seraphs of heaven Coveted her and me. And this was the reason that, long ago, In this kingdom by the sea, A wind blew out of a cloud, chilling My beautiful Annabel Lee; So that her high-born kinsmen came And bore her away from me, To shut her up in a sepulchre In this kingdom by the sea. The angels, not half so happy in heaven, Went envying her and me - Yes! that was the reason (as all men know, In this kingdom by the sea) That the wind came out of the cloud one night, Chilling and killing my Annabel Lee. But our love it was stronger by far than the love Of those who were older than we - Of many far wiser than we - And neither the angels in heaven above, Nor the demons down under the sea, Can ever dissever my soul from the soul Of the beautiful Annabel Lee; For the moon never beams without bringing me dreams Of the beautiful Annabel Lee; And the stars never rise but I feel the bright eyes Of the beautiful Annabel Lee; And so, all the night-tide, I lie down by the side Of my darling -my darling -my life and my bride, In the sepulchre there by the sea - In her tomb by the sounding sea. <span style="color: #333333; display: block; font-family: verdana,Arial,Tahoma,sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: normal; padding-left: 14px; padding-top: 13px;">Alex Driehaus <span style="color: #333333; display: block; font-family: arial; font-size: 9.75pt; margin: 0in; padding-left: 14px; padding-top: 13px;">In memory of Max Kaner 1/18/91-2/7/93 <span style="color: #333333; display: block; font-family: arial; font-size: 9.75pt; margin: 0in; padding-left: 14px; padding-top: 13px;">Bled to death after a tonsillectomy

<span style="color: #333333; display: block; font-family: arial; font-size: 9.75pt; margin: 0in; padding-left: 14px; padding-top: 13px;">Garden of Stone <span style="color: #333333; display: block; font-family: arial; font-size: 9.75pt; margin: 0in; padding-left: 14px; padding-top: 13px;">By: Michael Kaner <span style="color: #333333; display: block; font-family: arial; font-size: 9.75pt; margin: 0in; padding-left: 14px; padding-top: 13px;">He wiped away the snow <span style="color: #333333; display: block; font-family: arial; font-size: 9.75pt; margin: 0in; padding-left: 14px; padding-top: 13px;">and laid down a single rose. <span style="color: #333333; display: block; font-family: arial; font-size: 9.75pt; margin: 0in; padding-left: 14px; padding-top: 13px;">Thinking of what might have been, <span style="color: #333333; display: block; font-family: arial; font-size: 9.75pt; margin: 0in; padding-left: 14px; padding-top: 13px;">and pain only the bereaved knows. <span style="color: #333333; display: block; font-family: arial; font-size: 9.75pt; margin: 0in; padding-left: 14px; padding-top: 13px;">Another tear falls in a garden of stone..... <span style="color: #333333; display: block; font-family: arial; font-size: 9.75pt; margin: 0in; padding-left: 14px; padding-top: 13px;">He could have been president, <span style="color: #333333; display: block; font-family: arial; font-size: 9.75pt; margin: 0in; padding-left: 14px; padding-top: 13px;">a ballplayer or won a Nobel prize. <span style="color: #333333; display: block; font-family: arial; font-size: 9.75pt; margin: 0in; padding-left: 14px; padding-top: 13px;">But it'll never come to be, <span style="color: #333333; display: block; font-family: arial; font-size: 9.75pt; margin: 0in; padding-left: 14px; padding-top: 13px;">and we'll never look into his eyes. <span style="color: #333333; display: block; font-family: arial; font-size: 9.75pt; margin: 0in; padding-left: 14px; padding-top: 13px;">They said it was routine, <span style="color: #333333; display: block; font-family: arial; font-size: 9.75pt; margin: 0in; padding-left: 14px; padding-top: 13px;">Don't worry, we do it every day. <span style="color: #333333; display: block; font-family: arial; font-size: 9.75pt; margin: 0in; padding-left: 14px; padding-top: 13px;">But something went oh so wrong, <span style="color: #333333; display: block; font-family: arial; font-size: 9.75pt; margin: 0in; padding-left: 14px; padding-top: 13px;">now they don't know what to say. <span style="color: #333333; display: block; font-family: arial; font-size: 9.75pt; margin: 0in; padding-left: 14px; padding-top: 13px;">Another tear falls in a garden of stone................ <span style="color: #333333; display: block; font-family: arial; font-size: 9.75pt; margin: 0in; padding-left: 14px; padding-top: 13px;">We watched the tubes and wires, <span style="color: #333333; display: block; font-family: arial; font-size: 9.75pt; margin: 0in; padding-left: 14px; padding-top: 13px;">and they said that he was gone. <span style="color: #333333; display: block; font-family: arial; font-size: 9.75pt; margin: 0in; padding-left: 14px; padding-top: 13px;">A life snuffed out too early, <span style="color: #333333; display: block; font-family: arial; font-size: 9.75pt; margin: 0in; padding-left: 14px; padding-top: 13px;">never to see another dawn. <span style="color: #333333; display: block; font-family: arial; font-size: 9.75pt; margin: 0in; padding-left: 14px; padding-top: 13px;">Another tear falls <span style="color: #333333; display: block; font-family: arial; font-size: 9.75pt; margin: 0in; padding-left: 14px; padding-top: 13px;">in the garden of stone. <span style="color: #333333; display: block; font-family: arial; font-size: 9.75pt; margin: 0in; padding-left: 14px; padding-top: 13px;">Another day passes <span style="color: #333333; display: block; font-family: arial; font-size: 9.75pt; margin: 0in; padding-left: 14px; padding-top: 13px;">and they're all alone. <span style="color: #333333; display: block; font-family: arial; font-size: 9.75pt; margin: 0in; padding-left: 14px; padding-top: 13px;">The world gets older <span style="color: #333333; display: block; font-family: arial; font-size: 9.75pt; margin: 0in; padding-left: 14px; padding-top: 13px;">but he's still two. <span style="color: #333333; display: block; font-family: arial; font-size: 9.75pt; margin: 0in; padding-left: 14px; padding-top: 13px;">And we dream of things, <span style="color: #333333; display: block; font-family: arial; font-size: 9.75pt; margin: 0in; padding-left: 14px; padding-top: 13px;">he'll never do. <span style="color: #333333; display: block; font-family: arial; font-size: 9.75pt; margin: 0in; padding-left: 14px; padding-top: 13px;">He'll never ride a two wheeler, <span style="color: #333333; display: block; font-family: arial; font-size: 9.75pt; margin: 0in; padding-left: 14px; padding-top: 13px;">Or take a bus to school. <span style="color: #333333; display: block; font-family: arial; font-size: 9.75pt; margin: 0in; padding-left: 14px; padding-top: 13px;">All we have are our memories, <span style="color: #333333; display: block; font-family: arial; font-size: 9.75pt; margin: 0in; padding-left: 14px; padding-top: 13px;">we've lost our precious jewel. <span style="color: #333333; display: block; font-family: arial; font-size: 9.75pt; margin: 0in; padding-left: 14px; padding-top: 13px;">Never play in little league <span style="color: #333333; display: block; font-family: arial; font-size: 9.75pt; margin: 0in; padding-left: 14px; padding-top: 13px;">never steal a first kiss, <span style="color: #333333; display: block; font-family: arial; font-size: 9.75pt; margin: 0in; padding-left: 14px; padding-top: 13px;">We think of all those things <span style="color: #333333; display: block; font-family: arial; font-size: 9.75pt; margin: 0in; padding-left: 14px; padding-top: 13px;">he's going to miss. <span style="color: #333333; display: block; font-family: arial; font-size: 9.75pt; margin: 0in; padding-left: 14px; padding-top: 13px;">Never go to college, <span style="color: #333333; display: block; font-family: arial; font-size: 9.75pt; margin: 0in; padding-left: 14px; padding-top: 13px;">never walk down the aisle, <span style="color: #333333; display: block; font-family: arial; font-size: 9.75pt; margin: 0in; padding-left: 14px; padding-top: 13px;">Never know the joys of parenthood. <span style="color: #333333; display: block; font-family: arial; font-size: 9.75pt; margin: 0in; padding-left: 14px; padding-top: 13px;">we miss him all the while. <span style="color: #333333; display: block; font-family: arial; font-size: 9.75pt; margin: 0in; padding-left: 14px; padding-top: 13px;">Another tear falls in the garden of stone. <span style="color: #333333; display: block; font-family: arial; font-size: 9.75pt; margin: 0in; padding-left: 14px; padding-top: 13px;">-Allie Roell

<span style="color: #3c605b; display: block; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; padding-left: 14px; padding-top: 13px; text-align: left;">**Phenomenal Woman by Maya Angelou ** Pretty women wonder where my secret lies. I'm not cute or built to suit a fashion model's size But when I start to tell them, They think I'm telling lies. I say, It's in the reach of my arms The span of my hips, The stride of my step, The curl of my lips. I'm a woman Phenomenally. Phenomenal woman, That's me.

I walk into a room Just as cool as you please, And to a man, The fellows stand or Fall down on their knees. Then they swarm around me, A hive of honey bees. I say, It's the fire in my eyes, And the flash of my teeth, The swing in my waist, And the joy in my feet. I'm a woman Phenomenally. Phenomenal woman, That's me.

Men themselves have wondered What they see in me. They try so much But they can't touch My inner mystery. When I try to show them They say they still can't see. I say, It's in the arch of my back, The sun of my smile, The ride of my breasts, The grace of my style. I'm a woman

Phenomenally. Phenomenal woman, That's me.

Now you understand Just why my head's not bowed. I don't shout or jump about Or have to talk real loud. When you see me passing It ought to make you proud. I say, It's in the click of my heels, The bend of my hair, the palm of my hand, The need of my care, 'Cause I'm a woman Phenomenally. Phenomenal woman, That's me. - Kelsey Murphy

<span style="color: #1c1c1c; direction: ltr; display: block; font-family: verdana; font-size: 12.75pt; margin: 0in;">**If Tears Could Build A Stairway** <span style="color: #1c1c1c; direction: ltr; display: block; font-family: verdana; font-size: 9pt; margin: 0in;">//Author: Unknown// <span style="color: #1c1c1c; direction: ltr; display: block; font-family: verdana; font-size: 9pt; margin: 0in;">If tears could build a stairway, <span style="color: #1c1c1c; direction: ltr; display: block; font-family: verdana; font-size: 9pt; margin: 0in;">and memories a lane. <span style="color: #1c1c1c; direction: ltr; display: block; font-family: verdana; font-size: 9pt; margin: 0in;">I would walk right up to Heaven <span style="color: #1c1c1c; direction: ltr; display: block; font-family: verdana; font-size: 9pt; margin: 0in;">and bring you back again. <span style="color: #1c1c1c; direction: ltr; display: block; font-family: verdana; font-size: 9pt; margin: 0in;">No farewell words were spoken, <span style="color: #1c1c1c; direction: ltr; display: block; font-family: verdana; font-size: 9pt; margin: 0in;">No time to say "Goodbye". <span style="color: #1c1c1c; direction: ltr; display: block; font-family: verdana; font-size: 9pt; margin: 0in;">You were gone before I knew it, <span style="color: #1c1c1c; direction: ltr; display: block; font-family: verdana; font-size: 9pt; margin: 0in;">and only God knows why. <span style="color: #1c1c1c; direction: ltr; display: block; font-family: verdana; font-size: 9pt; margin: 0in;">My heart still aches with sadness, <span style="color: #1c1c1c; direction: ltr; display: block; font-family: verdana; font-size: 9pt; margin: 0in;">and secret tears still flow. <span style="color: #1c1c1c; direction: ltr; display: block; font-family: verdana; font-size: 9pt; margin: 0in;">What it meant to love you - <span style="color: #1c1c1c; direction: ltr; display: block; font-family: verdana; font-size: 9pt; margin: 0in;">No one can ever know. <span style="color: #1c1c1c; direction: ltr; display: block; font-family: verdana; font-size: 9pt; margin: 0in;">But now I know you want me <span style="color: #1c1c1c; direction: ltr; display: block; font-family: verdana; font-size: 9pt; margin: 0in;">to mourn for you no more; <span style="color: #1c1c1c; direction: ltr; display: block; font-family: verdana; font-size: 9pt; margin: 0in;">To remember all the happy times <span style="color: #1c1c1c; direction: ltr; display: block; font-family: verdana; font-size: 9pt; margin: 0in;">life still has much in store. <span style="color: #1c1c1c; direction: ltr; display: block; font-family: verdana; font-size: 9pt; margin: 0in;">Since you'll never be forgotten, <span style="color: #1c1c1c; direction: ltr; display: block; font-family: verdana; font-size: 9pt; margin: 0in;">I pledge to you today~ <span style="color: #1c1c1c; direction: ltr; display: block; font-family: verdana; font-size: 9pt; margin: 0in;">A hollowed place within my heart <span style="color: #1c1c1c; direction: ltr; display: block; font-family: verdana; font-size: 9pt; margin: 0in;">is where you'll always stay. Ashley Tettenhorst

Andrea Toth In the great, green room There was a telephone And a red balloon And a picture of- The cow jumping over the moon And there were three little bears Sitting on chairs And two little kittens And a pair of mittens And a little toy house And a young mouse And a comb And a brush And a bowl full of mush And a quiet, old lady who was whispering, "Hush!" Goodnight, moon. Goodnight, room. Goodnight, cow jumping over the moon. By: Margaret Wise Brown

//Live Each Moment// Author Unknown I may never see tomorrow, there is no written guarantee. And things that happened yesterday, belong to history I cannot predict the future, I cannot change the past I have just the present moment, I must treat it as my last I must use this moment wisely, for it will soon pass away And be lost to me forever, as part of yesterday I must exercise compassion, help the fallen to their feet. Be a friend unto the friendless, make an empty life complete The unkind things I do today, may never be undone And friendships that I fail to win, may never more be won I may not have another chance on bended knee to pray And thank God with humble heart, for giving me this day Allison Walke

one thing. You know how this is: if I look at the crystal moon, at the red branch of the slow autumn at my window, if I touch near the fire the impalpable ash or the wrinkled body of the log, everything carries me to you, as if everything that exists, aromas, light, metals, were little boats that sail toward those isles of yours that wait for me. Well, now, if little by little you stop loving me I shall stop loving you little by little. If suddenly you forget me do not look for me, for I shall already have forgotten you. If you think it long and mad, the wind of banners that passes through my life, and you decide to leave me at the shore of the heart where I have roots, remember that on that day, at that hour, I shall lift my arms and my roots will set off to seek another land. But if each day, each hour, you feel that you are destined for me with implacable sweetness, if each day a flower climbs up to your lips to seek me, ah my love, ah my own, in me all that fire is repeated, in me nothing is extinguished or forgotten, my love feeds on your love, beloved, and as long as you live it will be in your arms without leaving mine. Pablo Neruda Paige Moorhead ||  ||
 * **If You Forget Me** ||  ||
 * I want you to know

<span style="color: #3c605b; direction: ltr; display: block; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; padding-left: 14px; padding-top: 13px; text-align: left;">**Picture Puzzle Piece by Shel Silverstein ** <span style="direction: ltr; display: block; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; padding-left: 14px; padding-top: 20px;">One picture puzzle piece <span style="direction: ltr; display: block; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; padding-left: 14px; padding-top: 20px;">Lyin' on the sidewalk, <span style="direction: ltr; display: block; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; padding-left: 14px; padding-top: 20px;">One picture puzzle piece <span style="direction: ltr; display: block; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; padding-left: 14px; padding-top: 20px;">Soakin' in the rain. <span style="direction: ltr; display: block; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; padding-left: 14px; padding-top: 20px;">It might be a button of blue <span style="direction: ltr; display: block; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; padding-left: 14px; padding-top: 20px;">On the coat of the woman <span style="direction: ltr; display: block; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; padding-left: 14px; padding-top: 20px;">Who lived in a shoe. <span style="direction: ltr; display: block; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; padding-left: 14px; padding-top: 20px;">It might be a magical bean, <span style="direction: ltr; display: block; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; padding-left: 14px; padding-top: 20px;">Or a fold in the red <span style="direction: ltr; display: block; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; padding-left: 14px; padding-top: 20px;">Velvet robe of a queen. <span style="direction: ltr; display: block; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; padding-left: 14px; padding-top: 20px;">It might be the one little bite <span style="direction: ltr; display: block; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; padding-left: 14px; padding-top: 20px;">Of the apple her stepmother <span style="direction: ltr; display: block; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; padding-left: 14px; padding-top: 20px;">Gave to Snow White. <span style="direction: ltr; display: block; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; padding-left: 14px; padding-top: 20px;">It might be the veil of a bride <span style="direction: ltr; display: block; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; padding-left: 14px; padding-top: 20px;">Or a bottle with some evil genie inside. <span style="direction: ltr; display: block; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; padding-left: 14px; padding-top: 20px;">It might be a small tuft of hair <span style="direction: ltr; display: block; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; padding-left: 14px; padding-top: 20px;">On the big bouncy belly <span style="direction: ltr; display: block; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; padding-left: 14px; padding-top: 20px;">Of Bobo the Bear. <span style="direction: ltr; display: block; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; padding-left: 14px; padding-top: 20px;">It might be a bit of the cloak <span style="direction: ltr; display: block; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; padding-left: 14px; padding-top: 20px;">Of the Witch of the West <span style="direction: ltr; display: block; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; padding-left: 14px; padding-top: 20px;">As she melted to smoke. <span style="direction: ltr; display: block; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; padding-left: 14px; padding-top: 20px;">It might be a shadowy trace <span style="direction: ltr; display: block; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; padding-left: 14px; padding-top: 20px;">Of a tear that runs down an angel's face. <span style="direction: ltr; display: block; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; padding-left: 14px; padding-top: 20px;">Nothing has more possibilities <span style="direction: ltr; display: block; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; padding-left: 14px; padding-top: 20px;">Than one old wet picture puzzle piece. Katarina Gay

I really like this poem, //The Road Less Taken// by Robert Frost, because it can describe an everyday choice. Any decision can be compared to this poem and we can all learn from it. ~Hannah James
**Who will cry for the little boy?** By **Antwone Fisher** Holly Meyer who will cry for the little boy? Lost and all alone. Who will cry for the little boy? Abandoned without his own? Who will cry for the little boy? He cried himself to sleep. Who will cry for the little boy? He never had for keeps. Who will cry for the little boy? He walked the burning sand Who will cry for the little boy? The boy inside the man. Who will cry for the little boy? Who knows well hurt and pain Who will cry for the little boy? He died again and again. Who will cry for the little boy? A good boy he tried to be Who will cry for the little boy? Who cries inside of me


 * ==== ** Jabberwocky ** ==== ||
 * ==== by [|Lewis Carroll]  ==== ||
 * ==== 'Twas brillig, and the slithy toves ====
 * ==== 'Twas brillig, and the slithy toves ====

- Emma Summers
||


 * Footprints in the Sand ||
 * One night I dreamed I was walking along the beach with the Lord. ||
 * Many scenes from my life flashed across the sky. ||
 * In each scene I noticed footprints in the sand. ||
 * Sometimes there were two sets of footprints, ||
 * other times there were one set of footprints. ||
 * This bothered me because I noticed ||
 * that during the low periods of my life, ||
 * when I was suffering from ||
 * anguish, sorrow or defeat, ||
 * I could see only one set of footprints. ||
 * So I said to the Lord, ||
 * "You promised me Lord, ||
 * that if I followed you, ||
 * you would walk with me always. ||
 * But I have noticed that during ||
 * the most trying periods of my life ||
 * there have only been one ||
 * set of footprints in the sand. ||
 * Why, when I needed you most, ||
 * you have not been there for me?" ||
 * The Lord replied, ||
 * "The times when you have ||
 * seen only one set of footprints, ||
 * is when I carried you." ||
 * Mary Stevenson
 * The Lord replied, ||
 * "The times when you have ||
 * seen only one set of footprints, ||
 * is when I carried you." ||
 * Mary Stevenson

- Lindsey Mullen || A Dream Deferred By Langston Hughes

What happens to a dream deferred?

Does it dry up like a raisin in the sun? Or fester like a sore- - And then run? Does it stink like rotten meat? Or crust and sugar over- - like a syrupy sweet?

Maybe it just sags like a heavy load.

Or does it explode? - Christina Schultz

__Where The Sidewalk Ends__ There is a place where the sidewalk ends And before the street begins, And there the grass grows soft and white, And there the sun burns crimson bright, And there the moon-bird rests from his flight To cool in the peppermint wind.

Let us leave this place where the smoke blows black And the dark street winds and bends. Past the pits where the asphalt flowers grow We shall walk with a walk that is measured and slow, And watch where the chalk-white arrows go To the place where the sidewalk ends.

Yes we'll walk with a walk that is measured and slow, And we'll go where the chalk-white arrows go, For the children, they mark, and the children, they know The place where the sidewalk ends. by Shel Silverstein -Christy Rowland

=<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 20px; font-weight: normal; line-height: 1.3em; margin: 12px 0px; padding: 0px;">Laugh your heart out, = =<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 20px; font-weight: normal; line-height: 1.3em; margin: 12px 0px; padding: 0px;">Dance in the rain, = =<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 20px; font-weight: normal; line-height: 1.3em; margin: 12px 0px; padding: 0px;">Cherish the moment, = =<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 20px; font-weight: normal; line-height: 1.3em; margin: 12px 0px; padding: 0px;">Ignore the pain, = =<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 20px; font-weight: normal; line-height: 1.3em; margin: 12px 0px; padding: 0px;">Live, laugh, love, = =<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 20px; font-weight: normal; line-height: 1.3em; margin: 12px 0px; padding: 0px;">Forgive and forget, = =<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; margin: 12px 0px; padding: 0px;"> Because life's too short = =<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 20px; font-weight: normal; line-height: 1.3em; margin: 12px 0px; padding: 0px;">To live with regrets. = <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 20px; font-weight: normal; line-height: 1.3em; margin: 12px 0px; padding: 0px;">-Sarah Hilvert