Class Exercise #2

Class Exercises #2

Phone number poem

7 The muse awakened in that first class

6 Words came tumbling in rapid succession

2 “USE ME!"

3 They all shouted.

6 Excitement, apathy, giddy, holy, anger, joy

7 One after another ideas came and went

7 Powerful ideas flowing through words to paper

I Am the One

I am the one sobbing uncontrollably, collapsed in a crumpled heap on the hospital bed. I am the one with an empty womb and empty arms.

I am the one who saw the fleeting look of total despair in my husband's eyes as he cradled me in his arms and we sobbed together.

I am the one who watched the sorrow wash over my parents as they learned that their first grandchild had lived only 15 hours.

I am the one who saw the clenched fists buried into the mattress to keep from swinging them at the priest who said our baby died because I married out of the church.

I am the one who wept when a baby cried in church or the grocery store. I am the one who struggled to answer my little brother's questions about babies in heaven.

I am the one who found the article on new adoption policies and kept it open in my desk drawer to revive hope on long lonely days.

I am the one who felt the faint stirring of new life. I am the one who awakened from the anesthetic and looked into my husband's laughing eyes and heard his gentle words, “It's another boy and he can cry.”

I am the one sitting carefully in the hospital bed, praising God as tears of joy splash gently on our newborn son.

A Mastercard Moment

Yet another tank of gas                          $  22.00

Motel room 1 block from the beach       $160.00

Shrimp cocktail and beer                       $  25.00

Standing in the Gulf of Mexico Priceless!

Thou Shalt/Thou Shalt Not

Thou shalt respect my feelings.

Thou shalt not tell me how I should feel.

Thou shalt laugh every day.

Thou shalt not take thyself too seriously.

Thou shalt allow for failure.

Thou shalt not give up in spite of failure.

Thou shalt try new things.

Thou shalt not reject any thing just because it is new.

Thou shalt remember the past.

Thou shalt not live in the past.

Thou shalt follow a healthy diet.

Thou shalt not obsess about your diet.

Thou shalt learn when to keep silent.

Thou shalt not be afraid to speak up.

Thou shalt prepare for the future.

Thou shalt not worry about the future.

Thou shalt examine “rules” and cherish the freedom to choose.

Thou shalt not judge by rules alone.

My Place

In the bedroom of my childhood

       with the twin beds, each next to a window,

       two small dressers and two yellow chairs from Mexico,

I breathe in the fresh air because the windows are open to catch the evening breezes.

I think of summer and freedom when I remember our room and its ceiling covered with yellow roses, where my sister and I dreamed of these days when we are “grown up.”