Poems - verse thread for all to share favs, funnies etc :)

[Guest]

I tried to find the poem thread and couldn't and so wanted to share this:(I found whilst going through my old teaching resources)

If I Had my Child To Raise Over Again

IF I had my child to raise all over again,
I'd build self-esteem first, and the house later.
I'd finger paint more, and point the finger less.
I would do less correcting and more connecting.
I'd take my eyes off my watch, and watch with my eyes.
I would care to know less and know to care more.
I'd take more hikes and fly more kites.
I'd stop playing serious, and seriously play.
I would run through more fields and gaze at more stars,
I'd do more hugging and less tugging.
I'd see the oak tree in the acorn more often,
I would be firm less often, and affirm much more.
I'd model less about the love of power,
And more about the power of love.

Diane Loomans

[daze7]

Love it - If only I'd known all that ..... But I wasn't born with a degree in parenting - none of us are.

Daze

[Guest]

Nor was I Daze... sorry if this upset you..posting another..


FROZEN DREAM

I'll take the dream I had last night
And put it in my freezer,
So someday long and far away
When I'm an old grey geezer,
I'll take it out and thaw it out,
This lovely dream I've frozen,
And boil it up and sit me down
And dip my old cold toes in.

- Shel Silverstein




Toroa ~ Albatross
Day and night endlessly you have flown effortless of wing
over chest-expanding oceans far from land.
Do you switch on an automatic pilot, close your eyes
in sleep, Toroa?

On your way to your homeground at Otakou Heads
you tried to rest briefly on the Wai-te-mata
but were shot at by ignorant people. Crippled.
You found a resting place at Whanga-nui-a-Tara;
found space at last to recompose yourself.

Now, without skin and flesh to hold you together
the division of your aerodynamic parts lies whitening,
licked clean by sun and air and water. Children will
discover narrow corridors of airiness between,
the suddenness of bulk. Naked, laugh in the gush
and ripple — the play of light on water.

You are not alone, Toroa. A taniwha once tried
to break out of the harbour for the open sea. He failed.
He is lonely. From the top of the mountain nearby he
calls to you: Haeremai, haeremai, welcome home, traveller.

Your head tilts, your eyes open to the world.

by Hone Tuwhare

[Guest]

Kitten

the phone didn't ring
yesterday

it never even looked like
starting

and no letters've come
today, except


a stray kitten

i have given it milk;
it has adopted me

we've had a brief talk
about his mum? his dad?

you might say it was
a one-sided chat about cats:

but nothing's come of it

kitten knows only two
words and one of them is

slurp

it is making love to my
feet: it understands

my lonliness . . . miaow?

Hone Tuwhare

[Guest]

Man I wish I had a parenting manual sometimes...Cats don't need manuals, they just need slaves.....

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