Here’s a poem I wrote when I was in high school… yep, high school. That was, let’s see… a long time ago. My kids are now close to the age when I wrote this. This piece was published in our annual high school literary magazine. My 7th grade English teacher is the one who gets much credit for my interest in poetry today. She asked me if I’d be interested in writing something for the magazine. I was flattered to be asked. Not that anyone couldn’t write- anyone could write and submit something for consideration for publication. It’s just that I didn’t know anything about it, and well, I was asked. That started it, I wrote every year for that publication, and even submitted my artwork, which was also published, and never looked back, just kept on going. I have copies of those old magazines in a box. I can’t say there are an abundance of delightful memories from high school, but this is certainly one of them.
Everything is Beautiful
Every creature, person and thing
Is beautiful in its own way
So don’t be cruel
You may feel guilty someday.
Everything has feelings
Being rude is not fun.
Respect and appreciate
What God has done.
Even if something
Is not pleasing to the eye
Don’t remark about it—
Because inward you die.
Everything is beautiful
And beauty is easy to find
And those who do not see it
Are definitely blind.
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