Mighty Oak by Kathy J Parenteau


Stand tall oh mighty oak, for all the world to see,
your strength and undying beauty forever amazes me.
Though storm clouds hover above you,
your branches span the sky,
in search of the radiant sunlight you
count on to survive.
When the winds are high and restless and
you lose a limb or two,
it only makes you stronger, we
could learn so much from you.
Though generations have come and gone
and brought about such change,
quietly you’ve watched them all yet still
remained the same.
I only pray God give to me the strength he’s
given you,
to face each day with hope, whether
skies are black or blue,
Life on earth is truly a gift
every moment we must treasure,
it’s the simple things we take for granted
that become our ultimate pleasures.

– Kathy Parenteau

Source: Family Friend Poems

The Flower With a Dream

Animated Poetry by Katie Rose Waechter

The flower with a Dream

I watch the flower
on the lady’s shirt in front of me
float away,
But every time I look back
there it still lays.
Forever stuck in a sea of cotton,
pretending to be free
with petals shaped to move.
The flower sees me looking.
Me, moving freely.
And it almost turns green with envy
but not really because
its color can never change
while it lays on the cotton shirt.
Perhaps one day it will learn
to move.
I doubt it
but who am I to stifle dreams.

– Katie Rose Waechter

Invictus by William Ernest Henley


Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the Pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.

In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.

Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the Horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds, and shall find, me unafraid.

It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll,
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul.

– William Ernest Henley

Source: Family Friend Poems

Kleine Madeline


The sweetest thing I’ve ever seen

A breathing sunflower blossoming in front of me

With blue grey eyes where the ocean meets the sky

And a perfect smile that money can’t buy

Your laughter is love in its purest form

Your life brings light to any rainstorm

You are the sun and moon sublime

A beautiful, kleine Madeline

– Katie Rose Waechter

This poem is dedicated to my little, beautiful niece, Madeline Alina Rojas

Anyway by Unknown


People are unreasonable, illogical, and self-centered.
Love them anyway!

If you do good, people will accuse you of selfish ulterior motives.
Do good anyway!

If you are successful, you will win false friends and true enemies.
Succeed anyway!

The good you do today, will be forgotten tomorrow.
Do good anyway!

Honesty and frankness make you vulnerable.
Be honest and frank anyway!

The biggest person with the biggest ideas can be shot down by the smallest people with the smallest minds;
Think big anyway!

People favor underdogs, but follow only top dogs.
Fight for underdogs anyway!

What you spend years building up may be destroyed overnight.
Build anyway!

People really need help, but will attack you if you help them.
Help them anyway!

Give the world the best you have and it may kick you in the teeth.
Give the world the best you’ve got anyway!

– Unknown

Source: Inspirational Words  of Wisdom 

Kid Time


I have no money

When we were kids, money was a thing of the future

Or the past, whichever came first

Dollars spent on candy and other things that don’t last

But gives so much joy in the moments of childhood,

How it goes by so fast

And moments are lost to memories

Which are, in turn, lost to time

Because how can I possibly remember all those moments

When time goes by so fast

Or slow, depending on your age

While kids count the seconds to their next adventure

I can barely count the hours in a day

But wonder all the same how much time disappears

With nothing to show for it

All my plans and dreams of success

Are still so far away

But I remain stuck

Like a kid in quick sand

I scream and fight while time sinks me further

Knowing I will turn it around, but still sinking down

Under bills and bad relationships, and

Sitting 15 hours a day

I wish I was a kid again

At least I could run around

– Katie Rose Waechter 

Forgetfulness by Billy Collins


The name of the author is the first to go
followed obediently by the title, the plot,
the heartbreaking conclusion, the entire novel
which suddenly becomes one you have never read,
never even heard of,

as if, one by one, the memories you used to harbor
decided to retire to the southern hemisphere of the brain,
to a little fishing village where there are no phones.

Long ago you kissed the names of the nine Muses goodbye
and watched the quadratic equation pack its bag,
and even now as you memorize the order of the planets,

something else is slipping away, a state flower perhaps,
the address of an uncle, the capital of Paraguay.

Whatever it is you are struggling to remember,
it is not poised on the tip of your tongue,
not even lurking in some obscure corner of your spleen.

It has floated away down a dark mythological river
whose name begins with an L as far as you can recall,
well on your own way to oblivion where you will join those
who have even forgotten how to swim and how to ride a bicycle.

No wonder you rise in the middle of the night
to look up the date of a famous battle in a book on war.
No wonder the moon in the window seems to have drifted
out of a love poem that you used to know by heart.

– Billy Collins

Source: Poem Hunter