Sunday, June 22, 2014

I believe in you

As people who work with children, we have a great responsibility. At many points, they will freeze like a rabbit in the headlights believing sincerely that they cannot do this, whatever it is. In those moments, we have a choice. Either we let the child continue as they are tell them to chalk it down to experience. Or, we come alongside them, look them in the eye, tell them we believe in them offer to help them do it. This poem is about the long term impact this has on our children.

I believe in you

If the world walked by
Without a care
He'd have simply sat and stared
But one said they believed
This was not who he was
He was not simply ok
He was not just the sum of experience
Product of what had shaped him
Friends, family, life
He could be better
One had said to him
Long ago behind a wooden desk
While life swirled his ears
Dragging him down by the ankles
Swallowing him whole
One said he believed
That if he tried
He could succeed
That if he aimed for more
His hands would be full
That he was made for more
A purpose greater
Than the cards that life had dealt him
The world had walked on by
But this one had stopped
Each day he'd paused
And through this young man's storm
He spoke a ray of sunshine
Which parted the clouds
And showed him a glimpse
Of something far greater
"I believe in you"
We're his simple words
No more, but never any less
And these words rang in his ears
Like a gong in an empty dojo
Or waves breaking upon a deserted beach
These words sunk in deep
Deeper than he'd thought
For one day many years later
When all he thought he'd heard was long forgotten
Those words rang clear once again
"I believe in you"
An in that vital money
He chose greater than he thought he could
He aimed for more
He stepped out to take a risk
And to his surprise he walked above the waves
He wandered free through raging fires
He reached up to that far off mountain
He reached with more than his strength
With new strength he had been given
Long ago
Through the one who stopped
And with 4 words
Showed they cared
And he succeeded
All because long ago
Far ago in time and experience
One had said to him each day
"I believe in you."

Sunday, June 15, 2014

The Sunshine and the Rain

She loved the sunshine
The way it played on the waves
How it brightened everything
Adding new highlights to colours
It's warming light
Transforming a grey and dismal day

But the rain
The rain always came
Dark storm clouds would hide
Her precious sunlight
And darkness reigned
Each raindrop saturated,
Filled with sun-subduing shadow
And in the rain
She forgot the sunlight
Its light seemed far away
She could not feel it's warmth
She could only see the shadows
Cast on all that once shined bright
And inside, the light grew dim
Storm clouds gathered inside her soul
As the rain hammered down around her

But something changed
For the sunlight would not be held back
Through the dark, frosted glass bowl of the heavens
Broke a shard of sunlight
A ray of brightest day shone through
And in the rain, the light was transformed
It became more beautiful
More vivid
Deeper and more stunning than before
Beneath the shroud of the storm
The light was transformed within the rain
Darkest droplets were lit up
And split into a million colours
Their shadows chased away
The light which had seemed so beautiful
Was transformed within the storm
And so beautiful was the sight
That tears flowed fierce and free
Down her rain-drenched face
Each teardrop holding
A shining facet of the light's transformed ray
For in the rain
And deep within the storm
The light was shown in all its prismatic splendour
Greater and more beautiful
And she wept,
Knowing greater beauty than ever before

Thursday, June 12, 2014

The sound that beauty made

A poem born out of playing piano this evening.

The sound that beauty made

I had forgotten the sound that beauty made
The soul within a song
It's sound was an echo
Lost in the storm
Notes swallowed whole
In the wind's wild fury
But memories traced across manuscript paper
That familiar touch returned
With delicacy and hesitance
I pressed down gently
Leaping up at the touch of the note
Another finger joined and then another
Two hands playing together
In glorious harmony
This was magic
Beautiful and coarse
Smooth and rough
New and old
Woven in rich, sumptuous strands
A tapestry for the ears
An epic for the mind
Ebbing and flowing
Pitching and diving
Soaring and racing
Here was beauty
Melody was its name
Rhythm its creaking hull
And I the willing captain
Steering her through the storm
Though sometimes I could have sworn
I was merely a passenger
Watching the ship steer her own course
Buoyed upon music's vast and tremulous ocean
Coursing over my ears
Beauty flowed through my fingers
Soaking me up in its love and fire
Its firey passion overwhelming me
Throwing me, embracing me,
Reassuring me, leading me through

Here was my expression,
Here was my my voice,
My thoughts and wishes
Hopes and dreams
Made real
My whisper become a word
And that word grew in power
Until my fingers became the melody
My body lost within its rhythms

Yes, I had forgotten the sound that beauty made
But here
In this moment
My voice was heard
The sweet sound beat upon my very soul
And its tremulous beauty returned
With one foot upon the pedal
Its beauty held sway once more
As together, we rode and weathered the storm

TheWeeScottie

Tuesday, June 10, 2014

Paper wings

She sees the world in black and white
Colour drained from every sight
Love has lost its rosy tint
Life not even a hint
Of racing winds and soaring clouds
all she'd hoped for

'cos she can't fly on paper wings
held down by storms
and other things
as soon as lightning cracks her sky
and thunder fills her ears
she begins to fall

Paper wings weren't made to fly
He sits his desk job, life flies by
Wanting just a single chance
To see his body sing and dance
But legs like lead don't let you move
His wings can't lift him up

'cos he can't fly on paper wings
held down by storms
and other things
as soon as lightning cracks his sky
and thunder fills his ears
he begins to fall

Yet paper wings weren't meant for us
We're made to fly like eagles, us
With wings of gold I want to see
Raised above my frailty
We're made for better
made to soar
Above the storms that rage and roar

No, I can't fly on paper wings
my storms pull down
through many things
but though lightning cracks across my sky
the thunder fills my ears
and I begin to fall
you give me golden wings to fly
and above all this I soar

TheWeeScottie