Login
|
Join PoetrySoup
Home
Submit Poems
Login
Sign Up
Member Home
My Poems
My Quotes
My Profile & Settings
My Inboxes
My Outboxes
Soup Mail
Contest Results/Status
Contests
Poems
Poets
Famous Poems
Famous Poets
Dictionary
Types of Poems
Videos
Resources
Syllable Counter
Articles
Forum
Blogs
Poem of the Day
New Poems
Anthology
Grammar Check
Greeting Card Maker
Classifieds
Quotes
Short Stories
Member Area
Member Home
My Profile and Settings
My Poems
My Quotes
My Short Stories
My Articles
My Comments Inboxes
My Comments Outboxes
Soup Mail
Poetry Contests
Contest Results/Status
Followers
Poems of Poets I Follow
Friend Builder
Soup Social
Poetry Forum
New/Upcoming Features
The Wall
Soup Facebook Page
Who is Online
Link to Us
Member Poems
Poems - Top 100 New
Poems - Top 100 All-Time
Poems - Best
Poems - by Topic
Poems - New (All)
Poems - New (PM)
Poems - New by Poet
Poems - Random
Poems - Read
Poems - Unread
Member Poets
Poets - Best New
Poets - New
Poets - Top 100 Most Poems
Poets - Top 100 Most Poems Recent
Poets - Top 100 Community
Poets - Top 100 Contest
Famous Poems
Famous Poems - African American
Famous Poems - Best
Famous Poems - Classical
Famous Poems - English
Famous Poems - Haiku
Famous Poems - Love
Famous Poems - Short
Famous Poems - Top 100
Famous Poets
Famous Poets - Living
Famous Poets - Most Popular
Famous Poets - Top 100
Famous Poets - Best
Famous Poets - Women
Famous Poets - African American
Famous Poets - Beat
Famous Poets - Cinquain
Famous Poets - Classical
Famous Poets - English
Famous Poets - Haiku
Famous Poets - Hindi
Famous Poets - Jewish
Famous Poets - Love
Famous Poets - Metaphysical
Famous Poets - Modern
Famous Poets - Punjabi
Famous Poets - Romantic
Famous Poets - Spanish
Famous Poets - Suicidal
Famous Poets - Urdu
Famous Poets - War
Poetry Resources
Anagrams
Bible
Book Store
Character Counter
Cliché Finder
Poetry Clichés
Common Words
Copyright Information
Grammar
Grammar Checker
Homonym
Homophones
How to Write a Poem
Lyrics
Love Poem Generator
New Poetic Forms
Plagiarism Checker
Poetics
Poetry Art
Publishing
Random Word Generator
Spell Checker
Store
What is Good Poetry?
Word Counter
Email Poem
Your IP Address: 18.188.92.213
Your Email Address:
Required
Email Address Not Valid.
To Email Address:
Email Address Not Valid.
Required
Subject
Required
Personal Note:
Poem Title:
Poem
I came upon an old man once Who told me to be wise. To care for those I really like Look deep into their eyes. Because eyes tell all I need to know To find out what is wrong, To hear what they are hearing, To know their favorite song. “I’ll try it out” I said to him That’s all he wanted from me. And then we went our separate way The next year I was three. In all those years that’ve come and gone I’ve known a lot of faces But those that I’ve remembered most Were in very special places. Like on the head of good-old-dad And mom she has one too, And all the people I work with (All but just a few) I try this out on everyone And it works quite well. Too well sometimes, I’ve been told, My head began to swell. My ego had taken over I had no control of my brain And then that same old man showed up And it began to rain. He told me I had made him sad Not used my power as I should. He said he’d take way my fun, And I knew that he could. I told him I didn’t mean to abuse it Put other people down Because they weren’t as good as me But the rain kept pouring down. I squealed and squirmed and apologized Until my face was blue Then the sun came shining up To give me try number two. I couldn’t get over the guilt I felt With my hero staring at me. He stared and stared and made me squirm Until I got down on one knee. I apologized to the mighty man He put me in my place He told me I got one more chance And a smile came across his face. I could have sworn it was an hour But only five minutes went by He yelled, he screamed, and blew his top So I began to cry. He stopped his yelling, gave me a hug Which I needed at that time. He told me I could be the best Then gave me a shiny new dime. I thanked him for the money And politely asked him why, He told me one I learned to care He’d come back and tell me why. I haven’t seen him since, mind you He’s neither here nor there. I try to be the best I can But not too good to care. That shiny dime is in my room The one on which I’d sworn. It sits upon my bedroom wall And I see it every morn. It reminds me of the old man I knew Before he went away To teach others how to care and love But he’ll be back one day. To tell me that I’ve passed with grace And do I have my dime? Because that little piece of silver Gets me into Heaven when it’s time. Thanks to Grandma Schmidt encouraging me to keep them, this is the first poem written down that I kept from grade school, written 1980.
CAPTCHA Preview
Type the characters you see in the picture
Required