Gazing out my window
I thought of yesterdays
The faces and the gestures
And how the laughter fades

Wondered if you're happy
Or if you found your way
From long nights in November
And the promise that we made

-- Submitted by Jeff Kurfess from Parma, MI

Did she have stories never told?
Ones she lived so long ago?
Would I have listened if she did?
She was my mom and me a kid.

Just my mother, not really real,
is this the way, of her, I feel?
Did she love, did she cry?
Was there a time I asked her why?

Mothers, they are always there,
too many times we aren't aware,
that they are people just like us,
to remember that would be a plus.

I sat to listen of memories of old
as my mother talked of long ago.
She spoke of Daddy and his faults
and of dancing to the Tennessee Waltz.

We laughed and cried, just two gals,
not mother and daughter, just two pals.
She was just my mother so I didn't know
that she had actually lived so long ago.

-- Submitted by Gloria Sarasin from Trinity, NC

 The knife cuts deeply to the core
The spirit bleeds forever more
A pain to last a whole life long
But who's to say if this is wrong

 We loved beside a diamond bay
That flashed the sun in bright of day
And glittered in the starry night
But who's to say that it was right

 Dark shadows danced around the two
Not wanting joy for me and you
I'll never know until this day
Just what went wrong, but who's to say

Unhappiness would be my fate
But wisdom always comes too late
I look at life as one big stage
The eye more sensitive with age

I watch the drama now unfold
The truth upon the stage is told
I laughed and cried but I was strong
And who's to say that I was wrong

Perhaps the love I lost in youth
Was never meant to be, in truth
It seems that love can cloud our sight
But who's to say that I am right

If I were meant to live again
The same beginning to the end
I'd tread my footsteps all along
And who's to say if I am wrong

 -- Submitted by Elizabeth Santos from Pottstown, PA

You have to have luck
With a mile more to go
A crooked road
It's a vicious circle.

 A heart of gold
Bears silent witness
To the kindness trait
Of being a good observer.

 Your enchanted eyewitness
Do you know what I mean?
Invitation to contraction
Of the life lived sweet and fragile.

 I'm in your corner
Read between the lines
Go forth and forward
To where beauty lies.

-- Submitted by David Soriano from Bradford, PA

 Words flowing from within the heart
To compose a poetic thought,
Letting the muse control the pen.
The soul flooded with images it wrought,

From within the heart come the words
Helping to heal a wounded soul.
Driving deep into the core
To let the one in pain know

No one needs to walk alone
With burdens too heavy to bear.
The poet with reassuring verse
Sends healing words of care

Reaching out to the one in pain
Helping the heart to mend,
Reassuring them not to despair.
For within the verse they find a friend

What is it that affirms a Poet's Soul?
The listener connects with what they heard
As if the poet wrote the verse for them
And the healing begins within the word.

-- Submitted by James A. Browning from Janesville, WI

The day starts fresh in the morning,
the birds start twittering.
Darkness is dispelled by light,
and loses the uneven fight.

 Traffic starts getting heavier,
roads get busier and busier.
To school do children go,
by buses and by auto.

 Mid-day sees the blazing sun,
and we can have no fun.
Evening sees the children home,
doing home work and watching T.V. some.

The setting sun turns orange in color,
and the birds go to their arbour.
Bats and cats go hunting,
but people turn to praying.

 -- Submitted by SRIRAM.M.A. from Bangalore, Karnataka, India

Pour out your heart
oh poet, in a poem
Of far away places
let your mind roam
for just beyond
what the eye can see
someone will be waiting
there for thee
Someone you have known
forever in your mind
Somewhere in a dream
true love you find
They are more than words
from emotions spent
they are more than words
from a letter, not sent
Of heart, of soul
of tear stained words
the poet writes
that his voice may be heard
So pour out your heart
oh poet, in a poem
let the world see love
let your heart be known

 -- Submitted by Robert Ditchman from Mentor on the Lake, Ohio