Be Still and Grow
©2016 Susan Noyes Anderson
photo by Francesca Woodman
Sometimes, life’s colors spin away and set us spinning, too.
The air about us thickens, and we lose our point of view.
Writing “life lessons” poems is one of the ways I connect with and learn from life. They help me move myself through the inevitable ups and downs with as much grace as possible. And what better way to find grace than in the words of a poem? Thank you for gracing me with your presence here, and don’t forget to send a request my way before using my life lessons poems. (Please include full copyright information on every copy. For internet use, a link back to the poem on this site is required.)
FINDING THE POEM YOU WANT: As you scroll through this section, read each snippet sample (usually the first four lines) to get a feel for the poem. When you find something you like, click “CONTINUE READING” to view the entire poem.
Sometimes, life’s colors spin away and set us spinning, too.
The air about us thickens, and we lose our point of view.
Oh, how I love a fledgling year,
wiped free of gloom and haze,
where all the calendar is clear
to mark in sunny days.
A wedge of years has crept between our hearts,
though we are of an age in days alone.
My waning health your self-esteem disarms,
for you absorb my limits as your own.
Faith is a sacred gift in life,
a gift we seize or spurn.
The seeds are freely granted us;
the fruit is ours to earn.
Their roots were in the land;
the land was everything.
The old ones took a stand,
inured to suffering.
If ever in my final, fading years
the essence of me drifts too far away…
if I am lost as reason disappears,
hold me in memory until the day
when body stills at last and spirit flies
to make a home in brighter, bluer skies.
Martin Luther King
had quite a dream,
and so did I.
Sadly, it peaked,
then sprang a leak
and failed to satisfy.