friends
A Poem A Day #189: Goodbye, my friend
A Poem A Day #179: All in the signs
My Poem “Nightingales”
Walking out into the morning light,
as the sound of the Nightingale’s song
can be heard heralding a new day,
men and women seamlessly
cross paths and exchange
distinct and yet unique calls
of mutual and reciprocal
strength, solidarity
and understanding
to one another in order to help
sustain those continuing
to give care to those in need
as well as to give those returning home
something to aid their sleep
as they prepare to say goodnight.
The care of patients in hospitals
is a round the clock necessity…
the care of people struggling
to breathe these days is among
the highest of priorities…
the attention given to people
unable to fully realize what
is happening to them is done delicately…
now is the time when we see –
almost every hour of every day –
so many examples of people
exhibiting the best traits of humanity.
The daily lives of countless people
have been effected and disrupted,
and everybody in one way
or another has had to adapt to
different ways of behaving that may
have seemed alien before the world
was seemingly turned upside-down…
we are all trying to be there for
those who are in lockdown
and those who are sheltering within
their homes because they are among
our society’s most fragile.
Being caring and thoughtful
in the service and in memory of others
is always a powerful way of thwarting
any and all inner demons and doubts…
being there when and where we are needed
and never ceasing to make our
calls of hope resonate as loud as possible
is what we can all do every moment
of every day and in turn use
the power of our voices in such a way
that may be heard and remembered
to be just as distinctive and joyous
as that of the sound of
a nightingale’s chorus.
My Poem “Bella”
There are so many beautiful
things that we see
and there are so many beautiful
moments that we experience,
but there are only a handful
of beautiful souls with a heart of gold
that we meet throughout our lives –
from people to animals –
who get us through the bad times,
who remind us of the good times,
who are there when we need them,
who look forward to seeing us
when we walk through an open door,
and it is the memories that we have
of these friends large and small
that everybody think back to
because what they still mean to us,
even after they have passed on,
is beautiful in every way
and the spirit of who they are
will live on and last a lifetime.
My Poem “Grounded”
One of the things that living
through times of uncertainty
teaches someone is to appreciate
all the things about a person’s life
that are the most essential…
one of the things that people
realize that they often take for granted,
especially when living through times of loss,
is the gift of knowing that
the friends and family members
are still managing to adapt
and to survive the best that they can.
One of the things that everybody
understands more acutely than they would
under normal circumstances
is why it is so important to tell people
how you feel about them, if you can,
when you can, how you can –
because sometimes things in life
do not always go to plan.
One of the things that people
have to deal with,
especially while learning how to deal with
the after-effects of a cataclysmic event,
is an unbelievable amount of stress
as well the sometimes difficult
endeavour of feeling under the weather,
trying to figure out how to live
when some connections
and when some avenues of stability
and serenity have been temporarily severed.
One of the things that the people
have to learn when they are travelling
down an unknown path
is the ability to course-correct,
to change how they think,
to change what they do,
and to remember what has always
kept them on the straight and narrow,
what their life revolves around,
and what it is in their life
that has always kept them grounded.
My Poem “The True Meaning”
The true meaning of Christmas
isn’t about presents –
the true meaning of Christmas
is about the bond shared
between family and friends
and the love that binds
children and their parents…
The true meaning of Christmas
isn’t about money,
nor about what other people have –
the true meaning of Christmas
is about rising above the trivial
and looking around at your life
and being grateful for the truest
and the purest gift of all: the gift of love…
The true meaning of Christmas
isn’t about where you are –
the true meaning of Christmas
is about who you are with
and what certain people mean to you…
When I think about what Christmas means to me
I look no further for the answer
than to my family, to my fiance, to my friends –
those who give me so much every day
without asking anything in return
and who to me embody the true meaning of Christmas.
My Poem ‘School Friends’
Throughout the years
that we spend in attendance at school,
we have certain friends
with whom we hang-out
and sit down to have our lunch with –
however, when we fast-forward
to the present day and to the life
that we are now live,
how many of those same people,
those same friends,
do we all still know,
still talk to, or ever sit down
to have a meal with?
If I were to make a wild-guess,
based on my own experience,
then I would say not one,
or very few at-all-
which, to me, is a sad thing to think about
when you think back and your remember
some of the enjoyable and the fun times
that you might have shared
with your best school-friends.
It is natural for people
who once spent a great deal
of their time together
to slowly drift-apart
and become distant with one-another,
sometimes in every sense of the word…
life, like time, like a river,
runs in one direction –
the choices that we make
can see us doing things
that when we were children
we would have only thought of as
things that were beyond our wildest-dreams:
diving with sharks deep below the waves of the sea…
having adventures in rain-forests…
seeing the spectacular Northern-Lights…
or, perhaps, packing-up all your belongings
and making a new home on the other-side of the world?
We all grow up with people…
we all meet people over the course of our lives…
we all think that when we are a child
that the fun times will never come to an end…
we all had good days and bad days
when we were at school…
we all have memories from when we were kids
of memorable mornings, afternoons, evenings, and nights –
but, unfortunately, sometimes we all have to grow up,
grow from within, and we all have to make a leap
into an unknown world –
however, even though we all must move on in life,
find new things, and meet new people,
that does not mean that we should ever
have to forget who we went to school with…
who, no matter where they are now,
we will always remember them
as being our one of a kind
school friends.
My Poem ‘Happy Thanksgiving’
If life teaches us anything
it is that our time on Earth
is precious…
if life has taught me anything
over the last year
it is that every today and tomorrow
that I have is a gift…
if life teaches everybody one thing
it is that we should all
be thankful for the happy memories in our mind,
the air in our lungs,
and the beats of our heart…
if life teaches me something every day
it is that love is the greatest present
that anybody could ever give.
The beginning of this year was bleak…
when this new year began
I had no idea what the future held –
I hoped that things and people
would get better, but I didn’t have a plan…
on January 1st, my new year’s wish
was that my loved-ones would no longer
have to suffer any pain…
it has been 11 months,
and my family, my friends, and the world
has been through so much –
but there is always a reason to smile,
there is always a reason to stay optimistic,
there is always a reason to keep going,
there is always a reason to wake up
and thank god that you are still one of the living.
Days come, and days go –
each day there is a reason
to lift your head high
and to let your head fall low…
people change, children grow –
each and every day
we are all reminded
that the time of our lives
runs fast, not slow…
I am truly thankful at this moment
to be surrounded still by loved-ones
and by people who I am lucky
to have in my life,
because they know who I am,
where I have been,
and what I have been through…
nobody knows what the future holds –
but, personally, I like to believe
that if we all stick together
we can accomplish anything…
I promise to be there
for those who need me,
whenever and wherever…
and I just want to wish everyone
a very happy thanksgiving.
My Poem ‘Snow-where to run’
I am not sure if it is just me,
but I’m sure that it used to be,
that more than often than not
it used to snow only at Christmas time?
I’m not sure if it is just my memory
playing tricks on me,
but I’m sure that it used to be the case
that every Christmas when I was a kid
was a white Christmas –
however, now it is as if
the seasons have shifted slightly
and the weather of December
has now moved to the months
of January and February.
As I look around the world,
and I see the photos taken
by people of where they live,
snow appears to have fallen
and countless cities around the world
are now covered in a thick blanket of white.
New York City at the moment
is a winter-wonderland;
Washington, D.C., will soon be waking up
to what fell from the sky the night before;
people who usually wake up every morning
and go out for a run around Central Park
are putting on their winter coats
and knitted hats and scarfs
and instead they are planning to go for a walk;
the Potomac River has a layer of ice over it
so thick that it may take days for it to completely thaw.
From Rossville to Nashville, Tennessee,
a world of white is all that you can see –
perfect conditions for anyone
who likes throwing snowballs,
or perhaps going down to the local store
on a pair of ski’s
all the way up 7th Avenue in New York City;
from Times Square to West 59th St.,
adults and children are walking down roads
frozen in time in every sense of the word –
cars and taxi-cabs still stand
in the same place they stood the day before.
Here in England,
we have been lucky up until now –
three years ago, at this exact time of the year,
I remember walking down lanes
in the countryside of my home
and thinking that the only thing
capable of getting from A to B
with any kind of speed
would have to be a snow-plow;
when snow falls here in the United Kingdom
the entire country almost comes to a stand-still –
the kids love it when it snows though,
because their schools close for the day
and they can run around the streets and have fun.
There are some cities
and some countries around the world
that have a temperature of -20 degrees Celsius,
and where a day without seeing a single snowflake
would be to someone who lived there
just as miraculous as walking
across the surface of the sun;
for most people when it snows
it gives them a reason to stay indoors
and turn the heating up,
catch up with family and friends,
and share their pictures and memories with the world,
and it gives them an opportunity
to look out there window
at the snow that they see
and remind themselves that
where they are is where they are meant to be
and no matter where they look
they have nowhere else to run.
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