Dreams
By a 12-year-old boy who is an All Star Little League Player and wears a cochlear implant
It doesn’t matter who you are,
You can be the star.
Any disability, you can reach your dreams.
You can be by yourself or with a team.
Even though I do it a different way,
That doesn’t mean I can’t work or play.
If I see the world this way,
It doesn’t matter what you say.
Even though you may have a disability,
You can still make everything an accessibility.
Lost in a World of Silence
By an 11-year-old girl who wears a cochlear implant and a hearing aid
Lost in a world of silence, where people’s voices are not heard.
Lost in a world of silence, where you cannot hear a word.
Lost in a world of silence, everywhere I look around.
Lost in a world of silence, my eyes still stand true, but my ears deceive me.
Lost in a world of silence, show me the world and I shall believe.
Lost in a world of silence, with my eyes I can conceive.
Lost in a world of silence,
Lost, I may not be.
Racing Through My Mind
By a Patient interviewed for the Depression Experience Journal in 2002
These thoughts are racing through my mind,
Is this my fear finally here?
Am I losing my mind?
Is it true that I’m going insane?
Is my end finally here?
I feel like I can no longer go on like this, I want it all to end.
What is this thing they call chemical imbalance?
One minute I’m fine, and the next I feel like I’m losing my mind.
I’m in a world that doesn’t seem real, will my life ever be the same?
True Happiness
By a Parent interviewed for the Depression Experience Journal in 2002
For five infinite minutes
I felt true happiness– The poet inside me
Wants to put it in words,
To distill this one, pure feeling
Into the poetry it is.
My son, a man of 21 years,
Just left the table
Where we drank coffee,
Waiting for his flight
To China
To fulfill his dream
To speak Mandarin
Flawlessly.
We rose at the gate call,
A tight hug “Good bye”.
Then he and his first love
Left hand in hand
For their private “Good bye”
At the gate.
What happened then
Transcends the telling
But for a poem:
Sitting at the table,
I watched him walk
With feeling
Into his dream unknown,
Past life moments
Colliding
With this one moment
Of sweet farewell,
True happiness
Among the chatter and the clatter
Of the airport coffee shop.
It all began
When we began
To talk to each other:
I was a little girl then,
Talking to a moon beam
Behind the stars,
Waiting
And wishing
For your time
To come.
And then
You were inside me,
A young woman
Pregnant
With immutable love:
I drew messages
On me over you
About the joy
Of the days
To come.
When you were born
Every star in the sky
Came out to see:
We checked
Your fingers and toes,
Perfect 10’s.
Your Daddy lifted you
To the sky
In his strong hand,
His arm outstretched
In rapture:
You laughed your laugh
Beautiful already
On the second day.
And then the sadness
Moved in,
Like a thunder cloud
From nowhere.
The beaming smile
In the class picture
Changed to
A quizzical look,
Wondering
From where
The pain came,
The school friends gone.
And my sleepless dreams
Of a laugh less man child
Numb,
Alone,
Lost forever on the family couch,
Watching cartoons.
In that one moment
Watching you now,
A man of strength,
Walk to the gate
To China,
Your love beside you,
She wishing your return
Even before you’ve left
The bitter and the sweet
Collide,
And happiness is mine
Among the cluttered coffee cups,
Five minutes of revelry
Before the waitress interrupts,
Asking for the check.
***********
Some people come,
My husband, my love,
To Tuscany
To find true happiness:
They seek the sun,
The red tile roofs
Against the powder blue hills,
Chianti, tomato bread,
And heat laden, mid day naps.
For me, happiness here
Comes when you play the banjo
Among the olive trees,
For then, our history together
Of the bitter and the sweet
Collide in the perfect moment,
And we are one,
At home
Among the coffee cups
In the foreign vineyards.