Poems

Listening 

When I ask you to listen to me,
and you change the subject, I feel I am alone. 

When I ask you to listen to me,
and you start giving advice, 
you have not done what I have asked.
 
When I ask you to listen to me,
and you begin to tell me why
I shouldn't feel that way, 
you are trampling on my feelings.
 
When I ask you to listen to me,
and you feel you have to
do something to solve my problem, 
you have failed me, strange as it may seem. 

Listen! All I asked was that you listen, 
not talk or do-just hear me. 

Advice is cheap,
twenty-five cents will get you both Dear Abby
and Billy Graham in the same newspaper.
 
All I can I do for myself. 
I am not helpless. 
Maybe discouraged and faltering but not helpless.
 
When you do something for me 
that I can and need to do for myself, 
you contribute to my fear and inadequacy. 
But, when you accept the simple fact that 
I feel what I feel, no matter how distressful, 
then I can get about the business of understanding what's behind the feeling. 

Now, more than ever I need to talk. 
And I will listen to you. 
It will go much better for us. 
We will be closer. 

-Author Unknown-