This is it...the big one. This is the one that I have had published several times in various
places. It won a couple of awards (all minor, I'm afraid). This was my first real poem,
and it is still my favorite. I was even invited at one point to give a lecture on this poem,
what it meant to me, and what inspiration writing is all about. I wrote it in 1989 at the
tender age of 14. --Stephen Sifton
This one was written in 1988, I was 13.
When you think up a line,
And you think it is fine,
Find a rhyme,
And you have your first line.
When you need a rhyming word,
Sometimes a little bird,
Who you have heard,
Will say to make up a word.
When you write a poem,
In school or at home,
Don’t let the phone,
Interrupt your poem.
People say,
“Rhyming words, not today,
Or maybe some other day,”
But let’s rhyme words, whatta ya say?
Late or soon,
If you write about a raccoon,
Or a crazy loon,
Your poem will be done soon.
Your poem has to end,
An end you will pretend,
Write about a friend,
And it’ll end.
This one is a Purdue poem that is just sort of poetic ramblings, hence the title. People
were asking me why I was writing all these poems and I guess I was asking myself too. I
really don’t care for this poem anymore, but I love the title.
I often wonder whether if I have the right
To question the universe while I write
But then I ask myself “Why not?
This life is all I’ve got.”
My poetry may seem a little strange.
You might even think that I am deranged
The way I write about my inner self
Then the way dust collects on a shelf.
If you don’t like it, then just don’t read it
If you think that you don’t really need it.
If my poems sound good to you,
You are on my wavelength too.
If you are still trying to figure out
What my poetry is all about
Hang around and enrich your mind
And read about the things that bind.
If you know where I am going
Whether to Hawaii or someplace that is snowing
Or seriously where my poems are going to be soon
Like tomorrow, next week, or at noon.
If you wonder why I write this way
But it is not to your dismay
And you love it in this manner
Then you don’t need to make a banner.
All you need to do is create
Before a meal, or just after you ate.
Just whatever you may find,
I hope your poem makes more sense than mine!
Everyone is entitled to keep to themselves
But I often wonder if one is entitled to others.
Of course one has the right to love someone
But is someone entitled to be loved by another?
It is mentioned that true love is blind
In that case I will need a dog or a cane
Because my heart spots a young lady
But everything is then stopped by my brain.
I have thought very highly of everyone at some time
But sometimes because of my feelings, things get screwed up.
I never can express them properly
But then again I have never had to make up.
I don’t recall a warm fuzzy in my heart
In fact I have only one bright spot
Others brag how they have been loved over and over
But I don’t because I can not.
Sometimes I feel like life has no purpose for me
And there is no lover that I will be approved by.
No one to share a midnight stroll across a beach.
No one to sing a quiet romantic lullaby.
It’s tough being a true romantic, trust me I know.
But I must have faith; hopefully love will happen soon.
If it doesn’t I must still believe and wait for her.
I would just like a young lady to swoon.
Please someone clue me in that I am normal
I don’t always want to be unique.
Please tell me there will be someone to love me
Tell me that I am not a freak.
I am still waiting for her, whoever she might be.
And I could wait through all of eternity.
But most of all, make me a promise:
Tell me there is someone who will love me.
I just want to love her for life and then thereafter
I just want to be hers, and she would be mine.
She would be the one that I would live for,
But most of all, she is mine.