There Is No Future Good Enough
There is no future good enough
For what we hope to be,
Nor world with windows wide enough
For what we hope to see.
Yet when we turn to compromise
The dreams with which we wake,
We'll glimpse behind a memory
Which we cannot forsake.
How beautiful this time of youth
That is so quickly gone!
We came to learn together, and
In moments we are done.
How long we will remember this
Brief time when life would wait
Upon the true perception that
Comes always far too late.
To Graduate Is like a Crow
To graduate is like a crow
Flying up into a tree.
Once he gets there he can see
All the children down below.
To graduate is like a ewe
Climbing up a rocky hill.
Up and up she goes until
She's at the top and sees the view.
To graduate is like a frog
Hopping up from stair to stair.
He doesn't know until he's there
How high he is above the bog.
Up and up and up we go
From grade to grade, from hop to hop.
Why do we hop all the way to the top?
When we get there, we will know.
To My Sister on Her Graduation
To my sister on her graduation:
Old memories are a movie starring you.
Much of me is shaped by our relation,
Years and years of watching what you do.
So like two trees alone upon a meadow,
Interplaying with the rain and sun,
Shaped by the turning earth through light and shadow,
The growth of two becomes the growth of one.
Even as we struggled for the light,
Remember how we shared the dreams of night.
To My "Sis," from "Lil Sis"
To my "Sis," from "Lil Sis,"
On her graduation day:
Maybe life will separate us,
Yet we'll always be best friends.
So may love, until life ends,
In joy or sorrow not forsake us,
Sunshine on the darkest day.
Though there's a frequency I'll miss,
Each breath of peace that fortune sends
Recalls a bond time can't betray.
To the Graduate Who Makes Me Smile
To the graduate who makes me smile
Or melt away whenever he comes near,
The handsome one, with lovely eyes and hair,
Hearts leaning toward his sunlight all the while:
Even I, who am your friend, lean toward you,
Gripped with pride in all that you have done,
Relishing the compliments you've won,
Alight with all the ways I might reward you.
Draw your own sweet dreams. I wish you well
Upon your graduation and beyond.
And if I could, I'd wave my magic wand
That happiness for you I might compel,
Even as I think what time might tell.
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These Past Few Years Have Not Been Easy for Me
These past few years have not been easy for me.
How I made it through them, I can't say.
All your love has helped me reach this day.
Now I cast my thanks upon your sea,
Knowing of the love that's there for me,
Yearning without loss for what is mine.
Only in that love can I define,
Unloosing all my fears, my self-to-be.
To Give as You Have Given Takes a Love
To give as you have given takes a love
Hallowed by a special kind of grace.
After all, the lives we will embrace,
Now are shaped by those that our hearts move.
Kids need the kind of leader you have been.
Your efforts don't come close to the real sum:
On your life we build what we become,
Undertaking only what we've seen.
To Our Big Sister: Happy Graduation
To our big sister: Happy Graduation!
Our guide and model, mentor, hero, friend;
Older, wiser, yet of our generation,
Understanding well the wayward wind!
Rejoice, then, in this moment of transition:
Becoming us no longer, moving on
Into adulthood, a sensitive condition,
Given that your childhood is gone.
Still may you be for us the pioneer!
In you we see ourselves as we will be,
Singing down the hallways year by year,
Taking care there'll always be a "we."
Even as you lead, clear-eyed or blind,
Remember that we're following behind.
To the Graduate, No More a Child
To the graduate, no more a child,
On whom these many years my love has shone:
Take pleasure in the pleasure of my pride,
However much you've managed on your own.
Even as you dance upon your stage,
Growing ever more endowed with grace,
Remember that my love will never change,
A place for you beyond all time and place.
Do what you will within your own wide world,
Understanding in your own wise way:
Always know you are my field of wonder,
The wild, star-strewn moor on which I wander,
Even as I honor you today.
We've Been Together Since We Were
We've been together since we were
Just barely more than babes,
Holding onto Mommy's hand,
Missing two front teeth.
Some of us now have to wear
A bra and some to shave,
Adults in what our hearts demand,
Still children underneath.
Together we learned how to read,
Together learned to play,
To add and multiply our friends,
To give and to receive.
Our teachers taught us how to lead,
To put our tears away,
To separate our means and ends,
To work and to achieve.
And now we step across a line;
Our childhood is gone.
Soon, just like a morning dream,
The memories will fade.
But if we turn out good and kind,
Rejoicing in the sun,
We'll know to thank these sheltered years
Where our first joys remain.
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