You Are My Sunshine

As sunshine to snow,

so are you to my fears. 

Your warmth melts my worries away,

Like rays in the night

from the moon's distant glow,

you turn blackest midnight to day. 

Rain to the desert,

are your hands to my own,

I long for you while you are gone.

A robin's sweet trill

can't compare with your voice,

each sentence you utter a song. 

Call Me Princess

Princesses don't need your rescue,

it's true they are damsels indeed-

But whoever told us that they're in distress?

Should we blame the rider or steed? 

Princesses don't need a white knight

Or a prince to enable their reign:

diamond shoes upon two quick feet

And a crown circled 'round a strong brain.

Say your village is dragon-infested,

And the round table Knights have all fled,

Just call up a princess, she'll save you-

while you're under your covers, in bed. 

Princesses might seem quite gentle,

but don't mistake kindness as weak.

They are fierce in their loving protection,

They may be the hero you seek. 

Lightness of Being (Found Poem, Part 2)

The goals we pursue 

are always veiled.

The thing 

that gives our every move 

its meaning is 

always 

totally unknown 

to us. 

What we have not chosen 

we cannot consider either our merit 

or our failure.

Life occurs only once, 

and the reason 

we cannot determine 

which of our decisions 

are good and 

which are bad 

is that 

in a given situation 

we can only make 

one decision. 

What happens but once 

might as well not 

have happened 

at all.

History is 

as light as 

individual human life, 

unbearably light, 

light as a feather, 

as dust swirling 

into the air, 

as whatever will 

no longer exist 

tomorrow.

The Unbearable Lightness of Being (A Found Poem)

Love begins with a metaphor. 

The birds fortuitous
alighted on her shoulders:

a rose blooming
on a boundless 

snow-covered plain 

of silence.

He listened eagerly
to the story of her life
and she 

was equally eager 

to hear the story 

of his:

a sentimental summary 

of an unsentimental story.

A gulf of misunderstanding 

immediately opened between them.

Silence lay between them 

like an agony. 

It grew heavier by the minute. 

The woman he felt he knew 

most intimately of all 

had turned out to be 

a woman he did not even know. 

And yet 

she was the one 

he had always longed for. 

Love is the longing for 

the half of ourselves 

we have lost. 

Definitely Not the Sand

Maybe 

you are 

every grain of sand 

on an unstepped beach, 

and I, 

I am the ocean, 

trying endlessly to pull you 

back to me. 

Or perhaps 

you are 

the ocean, 

and I, 

I am the moon, 

guiding each wave 

from so far, 

far away. 

I could be 

the ocean, 

reflecting your light 

back to you, 

refracted and distorted, 

but I am 

definitely 

not 

the sand. 

Spring

Joy is a swing, 

small toes stretching for sky, 

a soundtrack of giggles and screams.

It is green underneath brown, 

new life out of old, 

promises sure to be kept. 

Joy is warm skin, 

bare feet and coat-less arms, 

fingers freed from fuzzy mitten fetters. 

Joy is spring.

Life's Not a Fairy Tale (Fortunately)

There's a man in the moon and the moon's made of cheese,

I'd ride the West Wind, but he's merely a breeze,

The cat's in the cradle, the cradle will fall;

Humptey's too high for his old castle wall.

Little Boy Blue is nowhere to be found.

Bo Beep and the sheep, well, they just aren't around.

Miss Muffat, Mother Goose, and old Mother Hubbard

have the butcher and baker locked up in the cupboard. 

Jack isn't nimble enough with his wit,

Peter is eating a pumpkin, won't quit.

The rosie is rung, London Bridge fell.

My toes are ringing, they each have a bell.

If this is peculiar, you think this is odd-

you should hear all the tales that are told out in Nod. 

Go for the Gold

Keep on yearning,

don't stop learning.

Reach, keep striving,

do-or-dying.

Chin up, shoes laced,

first or last placed.

Silence doubters

(missing out-ers).

Jump, land running,

never done-ing.