Shining Star

I watch in wonder. Children playing with ease,
using their imaginations to
transform boxes and sheets into a bright, shining
castle or pirate ship in search of long-lost treasure.
I envy their innocence, only fun in mind,
no complicated problems to bear.

I think back to when a teddy bear
was enough to ease
my child, loving and kind.
I realized I had to work hard to

keep hold of my son; my one treasure,
my bright star shining.

As he grew up, his shining
light waned dim, a sight painful to bear.

He started to treasure

other things that please,

and transformed into

another kind

of person. I could no longer find

the shining

little boy of two

whose feet, bare,

squished in the mud with practiced expertise

as if searching for treasure.

I cannot measure

the thoughts of my mind

when I feel his tight squeeze.

The depth of my pining,

as I gaze at his beloved teddy bear,

his bright light now far from view.

　

One of the hardest things to

do is give up that which you most treasure.

But the pain, though hard to bear,

has helped me in kind.

I see his star shining

as it rises in a different sky with ease.

I resign myself to the change, but it’s hard to

see his treasured innocence left behind;

the only kind thing left now is show that I’m there.

This poem is a sort of variation on another poem that I had posted a few months ago. The older version was an idea I had had back in my high school years. This version was an adaptation from that one to be switched from an open form format into what is called a sestina format. This is a 39-line form of poetry characterized by six stanzas with six lines filling each stanza. Another important aspect about this form that makes it unique from the rest has to do with the last word of each line. The last words from the 1st stanza are "repeated" throughout the rest of the lines in a certain pattern. The word from the last stanza line becomes the first word in the next stanza. The first word becomes the end word in the second line of the second stanza. #5 becomes #3. And so on. For example:

1st Stanza

1

2

3

4

5

6

2nd Stanza

6

1

5

2

4

3

3rd Stanza

3

6

4

1

2

5

 Anyways, the words can be "changed" through slant rhyme or words that sound somewhat the same but have different meanings. The purpose of using this form is to talk about something that changes but still stays the same in some way. In my poem, I was showing how children have to grow up, but for the parents, they still think of their child as a little kid and remenisce about their days of innocence in the past. I hope you enjoyed it and didn't get too bored by my quick little poetry lesson! :)

All We Have Is Time

The sands of time blow past us; rushing wind

We grasp at moments, years gone by before.

There’s nothing we can do but look behind

And see all that was missing and more.

Like sticks in a river, each endeavor

drifting past on the rippling waves of time;

left to remember moments forever

from when they were in the peak of their prime.

As the quicksand consumes the unprepared,

does time catch those people who, smiling,

fall into its trap, distracted and snared;

their actions betraying and beguiling.

So all we have is the time that is here;

good friends that we have; loved ones near and dear.