PostPoems Be Artistic. Be Creative. Be Inspired!

 Today I’m thankful for children

and for John F. Kennedy..

Who said:

Children are the messages we send

to a time we will not see.

Kayla, our neighbor, called to say she and her two little ones 

were going to pick blueberries and would we like to pick too…

Which is how we found ourselves that morning among the berries painted blue.

There among the blueberries…we hadn’t walk in very far 

when we suddenly remembered what it felt like 

to be as young as Ollie and Abby are

There among the blueberries…watching Abby’s face brighten into a smile…

and Ollie’s eyes widen as he was running wild

we wondered if…among the blueberries…everybody is a child.

It happens quite unexpectedly…I can’t say exactly when… 

as our attention flits form the blueberries

to the birds, to the bees, to the cows…then back to blueberries again.

There among the blueberries…just like all children do

while dropping blueberries into our bucket…we stopped to eat a few.

There among the blueberries, (I wonder is it just a blueberry thing?)

We found ourselves smiling, laughing, jumping…

and every now and then we’d sing! 

Yes, there among the blueberries it was hard to tell us all apart…

because, there among the blueberries…we are all children at heart.

So Kayla, Ollie and Abby as we fill our mouths with blueberries

we’d like to take a moment to thank the three of you….

for all the wonders you helped us discover that morning

among the berries painted blue.

 The other night at work I had mellow ’60’s music playing in the store

when a couple carrying their young son entered through the door.

Guessing someone’s age the more I age is harder and harder for me

but by the way he toddled through the store I’d say he was two or maybe three.

When he toddled up to the speaker where the music was playing

he stopped…he listened and when he finally felt the beat….

faster than you can say Richie Havens…he began to move his feet.

He toddle-danced left…he toddle-danced right then he began to bounce up and down

and the more the music moved him…he started spinning round and round.

But a toddler can only spin so much…three times…maybe four…

before dizziness and gravity directed him to the floor.

He’d sit there for a moment staring…smiling at me…and then

moved once more by the music…he’d begin to dance again.

It was fun to watch this little boy move to the beat and toddle-dance to the rhythm…

and fun to watch all the customers who couldn’t walk by 

without stopping to toddle-dance with him.

If you don’t think music is universal…that it can’t bring people together…

that it doesn’t our world enhance…

I invite you into our bookstore where you can listen to the music

and where, if you’re lucky, you can watch toddlers and people dance.

Oh yea!  As Boe the owner of the bookstore likes to remind me…

I also have a job to do…

So while you’re listening to the music…

and watching toddlers and people dance…

It’d be great if…you would buy a book or two.

The older I grow…the longer I’m on this spot 

I think our understanding about guardian angels needs to be re-thought.

We tend to think of our guardian angels as sprits who, without making a fuss,

are always somewhere nearby…protecting…looking after us.

What if…with the birth every child parents have happily awaited…

from inside the mother’s womb…an angel is created?

What if…looking at our children sleeping and calling them ‘little angels’ is not just hyperbole?

What if angels are exactly who our children were created on Earth to be?

Which would make us, as parents, guardians of our angels…

Which also means our work is never done…

our job:  to protect and watch over our little angels…each and every one.

And what if our guardianship is meant…not just for those to whom we’ve given birth?

What if our guardianship extends across the world…to all the little angels on the Earth.

As I say…the longer I’m alive…the clearer is my view…

We all begin life as little angels…only to become guardians of angels too. 

If that’s the case…if we’re all created to be guardians of angels…

Then…please…tell me how…

There can be angels starving in our streets and dying in wars…

Surely these are things no guardians of angels should allow.

If we’re ever going to find a solution to all this hunger…hate and war

We need all guardians of angels to remember

what we were all created for.

Today I’m once again thankful for children…

And how with innocence and purity they’ve been kissed

giving them the ability to see and feel things 

we adults oftentimes have missed.

Which is why we need to make an effort

as within us more and more years and information are compiled

to try to find that innocence and purity in ourselves…

and if we can’t…

to rediscover it in a child.