Speak your future
Say what you will be.
In moments of self-nurture,
Trust in your destiny.
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A little reflection based on some observation in a Zoom presentation for Professional Development from indigenous author Monique Gray Smith.
poem-The Poetry Retreat is Over July 9, 2017
The Poetry Retreat is Over
I am the last to leave.
The GPS battery is dead;
I don’t know where to go from here.
poem- Misty’s shoes June 3, 2017
Misty’s shoes
attended graduation,
tramping up and down the stairs,
standing at the podium as
name after name was read
each biography
each list of scholarships.
Dancing for young people,
leaping off into the unknown.
Misty’s shoes were there,
celebrating a roomful of potential
that Misty will never know.
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A few years ago on eBay I purchased a pair of stunning black and white spectator pumps (Listen Up Harlow by John Fluevog). While corresponding with the seller, I was told that they were her deceased sister’s shoes. Misty had passed away from cystic fibrosis. I was touched by the story, and wrote a character named after her into the novel I was writing at the time. Misty loved shoes and dancing and her passions fueled her story line in Grace Awakening Myth. (GA Myth is still in editing and revisions. Not sure that sub-plot will make the cut, actually). Thinking about Misty while wearing her shoes at my school’s grad this week, I remembered young people I knew who passed away far too young.
poem-moment June 15, 2016
In a moment
everything she thought she’d be
was sliced away.
In a moment
simple expectations yielded
to new arrays.
In a moment
opportunity seized her hand
to her dismay.
In a moment
foolish disappointments
were child’s play.
In a moment
her entire future was pulled
onto a new pathway.
poem-worlds beyond June 8, 2016
There are worlds beyond your doors
and opportunities reaching out to you.
“Future” is such a big word,
and so is “college” if no one has been before.
But you have just as much right
to take those chances, as any one else.
Don’t doubt the power of your ability.
If you choose to do it,
are willing to put in the work,
you can do it:
break down stereotypes,
forge new ground,
accomplish something beyond
what judgmental people
think is all you can be.
What’s your dream? Fight for it.
poem- valley June 8, 2015
We’re nestled here between the hills
protected from the harsh winds
warm and basking by the lake.
But you are bored,
you’re ready to escape,
to see what lies beyond the valley
and so we wave farewell
knowing after adventure,
home calls the blood.
poem- accomplishments November 22, 2014
The litany of what could be
is not as important as
what is now.
What was before
is not as important as
what is now.
For now is all
you ever have.
poem-Elizabeth October 31, 2014
Today
Your Snow White beauty
Is cut with a sharp edge of
Street smarts.
You’ve seen
Too much.
Tomorrow
Will the visions
Scar your face with darkness,
Cigarette creases
And add black anger to your eyes,
Aging you with
Exponential bitterness?
Or will your words
Poured out upon a page
Erase the stresses
And sculpt your beauty
Into timelessness?
poem-ghosts October 13, 2014
Of course ghosts are real
Haven’t you felt them
swirling about you
like leaves in the wind?
Memories that haunt
spinning through your head
with joys and sorrows
that have no place in
tomorrow.
poem-destiny
It weaves around the sky
like jet streams tying ribbons
of air,
entangled trust
entwining wishes,
entrusting time
twisting you and me
into a braid
of mist.
Shawn L. Bird 