Poems For Adults

My Life as a Poet

When I was young

My poems rhymed

Most of the time

When I was nine.

I wrote of unicorns, rainbows and flowers, 

Hour after hour

When I was nine.

As I grew, my world did too.

My poems still rhymed. 

Some of the time.

Now my poems were about love, 

About first sweet kisses in the park.

Thoughts of a love

Meant only for me.

Feelings and thoughts,

Happiness and hope

Filled the lines

For a time.

But I grew and my view of the world did too.

I got older and the world grew colder.

I wrote in coffee shops.

Bitter sweet brews warming my body

If not my soul.

My mind raced and through a nicotine fog, the words fell.

Now I wrote of life.

Confusion, pain and rejection filled the lines

Love wasn’t supposed to be like this!

This isn’t what I wrote!

Still I grew

Against the odds, I knew.

I made it through the pain and the fog.

And I grew.

Not just in body but in mind and in love and with hope. 

I grew.

Into a world I had made my own.

And then my world changed forever.

I had my first child.

It wasn’t planned, at least by me

But maybe by some design known only to fate

And for a while, no words escaped my pen

And the pages lay empty.

But I still grew.

A new and different world opened for me.

A world filled with giggles and excitement

And a new sense of hope.

New words flowed from my mind

And a new me was born on the pages.

For a time.

My children grew.

And my expectations did too.

Expectations for myself and my life

Who am I? What do I want?

Where is my personal port

From the storm and the strife?

Words and pages became my place

Where I could create and share

A happy safe space.

In my library I share the magic 

Of words on a page

A love of stories for any age.

I still dream of when I was nine

And some of my poems do still rhyme.

Once again, love and dreams fill the lines.

If only for a time.

B.Swinning 2024