These are a few things liked from this book. I liked it a lot and suggest you give it a reading. And do check 'Please Hear What Iam Saying' (the last poem here)
I miss you when I'm sad.
I miss you when I'm loneyly.
But most of all, I miss you when I'm happy
Kindness in words creates confidence
Kindness in thinking creates profoundness
Kindness in giving creates love.
If you can conceive it and believe it, you can achieve it
Shared joy is doubled joy.
Shared sorrow is sorrow halved.
A Few Poems
Please Listen:
When I ask you to lsiten to me
and you start giving me advice,
you have not done what I asked.
When I ask you to listen to me
and you begin to tell my why
I shouldn't feel that way
you are trampling on my feelings.
When I ask you to listen to me
and you feel you have to do something
to solve my problem,
you have failed me,
strange as that may seem.
Listen! All I ask is that you listen.
Don't talk or do-just hear me.
Advice is cheap;20 cents will get
you both Dear Abby and Billy Graham
in the same newspaper.
And I can do for myself;I am not helpless.
Maybe discouraged and faltering,
but not helpless.
When you do something for me that I can
and need to do for myself,
you contribute to my fear and
inadequecy.
But when you accept as a simple fact
that I feel what I feel,
no matter how irrational,
then I can stop trying to convince
you and get about the business
of understanding what's behind
this irrational feeling.
And when that's clear, the answers are
obvious and I don't need advice.
Irrational feelings make sense when
we understand what's behind them.
Perhaps that's why prayer works, sometimes,
for some people-because God is mute,
and he doesn't give advice or try
to fix things.
God just listens and lets you work
it out for yourself.
So please listen, and just hear me.
And if you want to talk, wait a minute
for your turn-and I will listen to you.
Smile:
She smiled at a sorrowful stranger.
The smile seemed to make him feel better.
He remembered past kindness of a friend
and wrote him a thank you letter.
The friend was so pleased with the thank-you
that he left a large tip after lunch.
The waitress, surprised by the size of the tip,
bet the whole thing on a hunch.
The next day she picked up her winnings,
and gave part to a man on the street.
The man on the street was grateful;
for two days he'd nothing to eat.
After he finished his dinner,
he left for his smaill dingy room.
(He didn't know at that moment
that he might be facing his doom.)
On the way he picked up a shivering puppy
and took him home to get warm.
The puppy was very grateful
to be out of the storm.
That night the house caught on fire.
The puppy barked the alarm.
He barked 'till he woke the whole household
and saved everybody from harm.
One of the boys that he rescued
grew up to be President.
All this because of a simple smile
that hadn't cost a cent.
Please Hear What I'm saying
Don't be fooled by me
Don't be fooled by the mask I wear
For I wear a mask, a thousand masks,
masks that I'm afraid to take off,
and none of them is me.
Pretending is an art that's second nature to me,
but dont't be fooled.
I give you the impression that I'm secure,
that confidence is my name and coolness is my game,
that the water's calm and I'm in command,
and that I need no one.
But don't believe me.
My surface may seem smooth but my surface
is my mask, ever-varying and ever-concealing,
Beneath lies no complacence.
Beneath lies confusion and fear and aloneness,
But I hide this. I don't want anybody to know it.
I panic at the thought of my weakness and fear being
exposed.
That's why I frantically create a mask to hide behind,
a nonchalant sophisticated facade, to help me pretend,
to shield me from the glance that knows.
But such a glance is precisely my salvation.
My only hope, and I know it.
That is, if it's followed by acceptance,
if it's followed by love.
It's the only thing that can liberate me from myself,
from my own self-built prison walls,
from the barriers I so painstakingly erect.
It's the only thing that will assure me
of what I can't assure myself,
that I'm really worth something.
I don't like to hide.
I don't like to play superficial phony games.
I want to stop playing them.
I want to be genuine and spontaneous and me,
but you've got to help me.
You've got to hold out your hand
even when that's the last thing I seem to want.
Only you can wipe away from my eyes
the bland stare of the breathing dead.
Only you can call me into aliveness.
Each time you're kind and gentle and encouraging,
each time you try to understand because you really care,
my heart begins to grow wings, very small wings,
very feeble wings,
but wings!
With your power to touch me into feeling
you can breathe life into m.
I want you to know that.
Who am I, you may wonder.
I am someone you know very well.
For I am every man you meet,
and I am every woman you meet.
Words of a senior
Life just isn't
Life isnt about keeping score. It's not about how
many people call you and it's not about who you've
dated, are dating or haven't dated at all. It isn't about
who you've kissed, what sport you play, or which guy
or girl likes you. It's not about your shoes or your hair
or the color of your skin or where you live or go to school.
In fact, it's not about grades, money, clothes, or colleges
that accept you or not. Life isn't about if you
have lots of friends, or if you are alone, and it's not
about how accepted or unaccepted you are. Life just isn't
about that.
But life is about who you love and who you hurt. It's
about how you feel about yourself. It's about trust, hap-
piness and compassion. It's about sticking up for your
friends and replacing inner hate with love. Life is about
avoiding jealousy, overcoming ignorance and building
confidence. It's about what you say and what you
mean. It's about seeing people for who they are and not
what they have. Most of all, it is about choosing to use
your life to touch someone else's in a way that could
never have been achieved otherwise. These choices are
what life's about.
