Words of a Poet

I’m Disappointed Too

I’m disappointed in this life
That slowly eats me away
Every moment I stand idle
Not knowing what to do with you.

I’m disappointed in you
Letting the insignificant people
Affect you, they way they do
Pulling you down with them.

I’m disappointed that they pull you away
From me.
It’s all you think about,
Leaving no time for me.

I’m disappointed to have to ask you
To care, or to at least pretend.
When am I on your mind?
When is it me that you think about?

Not knowing that
Has left me most disappointed of all.

by Matthew Henrickson

I usually don’t like email forwards, but last week I got one that was really good. Thank you Sharon for sending it to me.

What is the true meaning of love? Leave it to 4-8 year old kids to tell you. Some of these answers are really sweet. Enjoy!

What love means to a 4-8 year old kids…

________________________________________

‘When my grandmother got arthritis, she couldn’t bend over and paint her toenails anymore.

So my grandfather does it for her all the time, even when his hands got arthritis too. That’s love…’

Rebecca- age 8
________________________________________

‘When someone loves you, the way they say your name is different.
You just know that your name is safe in their mouth.’

Billy – age 4
________________________________________

‘Love is when a girl puts on perfume and a boy puts on shaving cologne and they go out and smell each other.’

Karl – age 5
________________________________________

‘Love is when you go out to eat and give somebody most of your French fries without making them give you any of theirs.’

Chrissy – age 6

________________________________________

‘Love is what makes you smile when you’re tired..’

Terri – age 4
________________________________________

‘Love is when my mommy makes coffee for my daddy and she takes a sip before giving it to him, to make sure the taste is OK.’

Danny – age 7
________________________________________

‘Love is when you kiss all the time. Then when you get tired of kissing, you still want to be together and you talk more.
My Mommy and Daddy are like that… They look gross when they kiss’

Emily – age 8
________________________________________

‘Love is what’s in the room with you at Christmas if you stop opening presents and listen.’

Bobby – age 7
________________________________________

‘If you want to learn to love better, you should start with a friend who you hate,’

Nikka – age 6
________________________________________

‘Love is when you tell a guy you like his shirt, then he wears it every day.’

Noelle – age 7
________________________________________

‘Love is like a little old woman and a little old man who are still friends even after they know each other so well.’
Tommy – age 6

________________________________________

‘During my piano recital, I was on a stage and I was scared. I looked at all the people watching me and saw my daddy waving and smiling.

He was the only one doing that. I wasn’t scared anymore.’

Cindy – age 8

________________________________________

‘My mommy loves me more than anybody. You don’t see anyone else kissing me to sleep at night..’

Clare – age 6
________________________________________

‘Love is when Mommy gives Daddy the best piece of chicken.’

Elaine – age 5
________________________________________

‘Love is when Mommy sees Daddy smelly and sweaty and still says he is handsomer than Robert Redford.’

Chris – age 7
________________________________________

‘Love is when your puppy licks your face even after you left him alone all day.’

Mary Ann – age 4
________________________________________

‘I know my older sister loves me because she gives me all her old clothes and has to go out and buy new ones.’

Lauren – age 4
________________________________________

‘When you love somebody, your eyelashes go up and down and little stars come out of you.’

Karen – age 7

________________________________________

‘Love is when Mommy sees Daddy on the toilet and she doesn’t think it’s gross.’

Mark – age 6
________________________________________

‘You really shouldn’t say ‘I love you’ unless you mean it. But if you mean it, you should say it a lot. People forget.’

Jessica – age 8
________________________________________

The best one was a four year old child whose next door neighbor was an elderly gentleman who had recently lost his wife.

Upon seeing the man cry, the little boy went into the old gentleman’s yard, climbed onto his lap, and just sat there.

When his Mother asked what he had said to the neighbor, the little boy said,

‘Nothing, I just helped him cry’
________________________________________

I asked my own 3 year old son what love meant. He said “I don’t know”. Then I asked him “Well why do you tell me you love me so much?”

He said “Because your the bestest dad”

I’ll take that answer.

My Love

My love is shy, as it’s been hurt before
My heart has been broken piece by piece
But pulls together
To love again.

My love is unique, it takes care of everything
No matter the problem
My love is there
To fix it everything.

My love is sensitive
It hates doing all the work
One sided love
May be the worst pain of all.

My love is looking for a lover
To reciprocate loves fate
To come together and change
My love, into our love.

by Matthew Henrickson

Losing Your Mind

It’s hard to say one thing
When everything comes out together
My thoughts are paragraphs
Instead of one line at a time.

Confused at what to think
When you’re always not sure
Careful where to go
When I’m never sure where you are.

I’ve lost your mind
It’s always somewhere else
I can only hope and pray
That I haven’t lost your heart as well

by Matthew Henrickson

It’s not a poem, but I think it’s pretty poetic. A woman’s love, maybe that’s what I’m missing.

Nothing on this planet can compare with a woman’s love–it is kind and compassionate, patient and nurturing, generous and sweet and unconditional. Pure. If you are her man, she will walk on water and through a mountain for you, too, no matter how you’ve acted out, no matter what crazy thing you’ve done, no matter the time or demand. If you are her man, she will talk to you until there just aren’t any more words left to say, encourage you when you’re at rock bottom and think there just isn’t any way out, hold you in her arms when you’re sick, and laugh with you when you’re up. And if you’re her man and that woman loves you–I mean really loves you?– she will shine you up when you’re dusty, encourage you when you’re down, defend you even when she’s not so sure you were right, and hang on your every word, even when you’re not saying anything worth listening to. And no matter what you do, no matter how many times her friends say you’re no good, no matter how many times you slam the door on the relationship, she will give you her very best and then some, and keep right on trying to win over your heart, even when you act like everything she’s done to convince you she’s The One just isn’t good enough.

That’s a woman’s love — it stands the test of time, logic, and all circumstance.

– by Steve Harvey in Act Like A Lady, Think Like A Man Book

Well if you put it that way, I don’t think I’ve felt a woman’s love for a really long time. 🙁

Old Child
by Reem Awad

Standing all alone… just waiting
Trying to find sunrise falling
Like a flower waiting for blooming

I’ve been there too long without a goal
With my thoughts, my mind waiting for the call
That will prevent from slipping in that hole
Not because you’re old and I’m just too small
Then I should spend my lifetime learning to crawl

Empty streets as I go on walking
Beneath the yellow trees I fly
I can’t just keep on quoting
And see the whole world passing by

Those colors won’t be the same
Everything gets too old
And one day they’ll become lame
Exactly like a paper when it folds
As people who left after they came
Turned to no color, from bold

We’ll all be gone for good one day
When nothing you can anymore say
So just take the chance now
And do everything you have to do

Maybe I’m still young to take some steps
But adults were younger before
God gave me those lips
To talk, end and start a war

You can consider me an old child
But sorry, I’ll not accept being ignored
I’ve the ability to find, that’s why I got a mind
And I have those hands to write the word
That anyone can read, even the blind

For my dream I swear I’ll fight
Till the last breath I’ll never give up
Even though I still have my hands in my pockets
Waiting for the sun to rise
I’ll forever be a human being that has… the right

by Reem Emad Mahmoud Awad – Age 16

Confetti

Me and him are something like confetti, bright and colorful in every way.
Our personalities unmatched, but yet they flow so perfectly.
It’s what makes us so close.
But just like confetti when it blows away, his colors will leave.
My colors will dim, and wither.
Never will I find another so bright like him.

by Alexandria Purnell

The worst is I take all of this time thinking about you and writing poetry about you, and it doesn’t seem to matter. Only for you, but does it matter?

Only For You

The words don’t matter
They never change
The time doesn’t matter
It’s never the same
The day doesn’t count
Because I never check the date
Regardless of the location
I love you the same
Throw away my money
I’ll make you more
Throw away my food
I’ll cook you more
Throw away my watch
I’ll turn back the clock
Throw away the rules
I’ll find a way to break them
Throw away our love
But I’ll never stop

by Matthew Henrickson

Dear Dad,

Last year I posted this poem, and I plan to do so every year in your memory. I hope you know that it’s hard for me to do, I cry every time I publish this poem.

I think I was too young to really try to sort through all of my unresolved conflicts with you, your death, and really just everything in my life at the time. It’s the turning point in someones life and then you leave me. I don’t know if I’ve done my best, but I hope you are proud of me. The happiest moments in my life were when you said you were proud of me. The lowest, were when I knew you were disappointed, I remember all very clearly.

My son talks about you. He knows you are his grandpa, but he’s too young to know, well, yeah. One time he told me “Is grandpa at the store?”… no. He’s smart and funny, it’s hard to imagine how much you would of spoiled him. I can imagine you and him together.

Happy Father’s Day

This poem was written in 2005 and first published here in 2007.

In Everything, I Find You

I’ve been reading about you every day
each story is different
but in my heart its all the same.
A loss so great with little reward
you brought the family together, after breaking our hearts
It’s impossible to miss you more,
but each day I do.
Each day theres some memory fresh and new
that brings me back thinking about you.

My father, my friend, my protector
My laugh, my smile, my trust
My eyes, my tears, my brain
My humor, my heart, my kindness
My life…
Your reflection…
and theres no one else I’d rather be

By Matthew Henrickson
April 4th, 2005

You can also read last year’s Father’s Day letter.

I miss my dad. I don’t know why all these feelings are coming to me right now. I’ve been blogging about Father’s Day sales for weeks now, and it’s barely just hitting me that he will be gone another Father’s Day.

I don’t go visit him anymore, I don’t know why. When he first died I would drive out to the cemetery in the middle of the night just to be close. Close to him, his memory… I don’t know. Now I don’t even bother and I don’t know why. Why did I fight to keep his ashes near me and not visit him? Just so I’d be able to?

I think that’s why I dream about him so much. I remember him so clearly and I know I always will. Just everything about him. But I repress that, the memories sometimes, and it just comes out in dreams. Maybe to get back at me for not visiting him. Torturing me with thoughts of him still being alive.

Sometimes I see people that look like him and just feel the urge to talk to them. To see if they sound like him, or act like he does. It sounds stupid and childish. Maybe they have a piece of him. Sometimes they don’t even look like him, and I’m kidding myself.

I don’t even talk to my brothers/sisters from my dads side. I feel bad, but I never really connected with them, it was all kind of forced, or rather my dad was the glue. Edward was mean to me up until maybe 1-2 visits before he died. And when he died he acted like a child. Why did I have to be more mature?

I got more time with him than anyone, but I never took that for granted for one second. Did they ever think that maybe for that reason, it was harder on me than them? Unfortunately, they were without him for a while, I never was. I guess thats my resentment.

All these feelings never dealt with are now coming out in the weirdest ways. Like this post.