A prayer for the pessimist

Here's to hope and all it brings.
A frivolous smile, a heart that sings.
And when the day ends full of pain…
Search for the sunshine behind the rain.
Look for blossoms amidst the weeds.
Discern your wanting from your needs.
Don’t say farewells with sad regret,
Remember instead, the day you first met.

Pjc 8.7.02

I have wept…

I have wept for the man sat crying in the street.
Who has slept in his clothes with no food to eat.
Have wept for him still, when with no self-esteem,
Did sleep under the stars, battered and beaten.
His hand-me-down rags that are dirty and damp.
Him frayed at the edges and emotionally blank.
I’ve cried for this man seen standing alone,
Amidst a thousand faces that nobody knows.
I will weep him no more, that man I have been.
Stained with self-loathing, difficult to clean.
For he has found strength, he has found peace
Drifting on a lake, beneath the Pyrenes.
The late night mass, the loneliest tree.
A sharing of feelings and a chance to be free

Pjc-10.7.02

When we were heroes

Take heed of days gone by.
When summers were endless.
The days seemed bigger, brighter.
The world was clearly more defined.
No room for doubt, for fear.
Questioning the choices we made.
Instead, we lived the games we played.
Soldiers on missions of mercy.
Saving the world.
Back then, when we were young.
When we were heroes.
Brave and true.
Blissfully ignorant of our futures,
The fearless and the foolhardy.
Soldiering on, taking risks.
Watching our backs.
You’ve saved my life a thousand times,
I’ve carried you when you’ve been shot.
Undercover, incognito, saving the world…
But nobody noticed, nobody thanked us.
The great things we did when we were kids.
When we were young and fearless…
All those many years ago,
When the two of us were heroes.

Pjc-19.7.02