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."

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

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

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