WHEN I WAS A CHILD�

Thoughts that came to me after the Fort Hood shootings� longing for peace�

When I was a child,

it’s strange,

I know,

but no one ever died,

and the world

was yellow…

All the families

were happy…

and each sunrise

brought bright

enchantments…

Oh… I argued every

now and then

with my friends

but in minutes

it was all forgotten

and we were back

saving the world again

together…

I didn’t hear

all the yelling

in my neighbor’s house

when darkness fell…

I didn’t know

that my friend’s father

shot his mother

than killed himself…

I didn’t realize

all the pain

I would feel

as day turned

to night

and my tattered

memories turned

deep gray…

Maybe I was blind

when I was a child…

Maybe I was a fool

to see only

happy faces

feel only

the warmth

of friendship

in the world

around me.

Or perhaps

maybe I

saw things

I simply can

no longer see…

Maybe each

new sunrise

really is enchanted

and somehow

we all need

to come back

across ten

thousand

scarlet skies…

Maybe there can

be a world

filled with peace…

I want to believe it…

When I was a child

it’s strange

I know…

No one ever died…

 

Reviews

[The Rock And Roll Cowbo..]

It is true what they say that ignorance is bliss... amazing what you realize when your innocence is first tainted by the world... things you see now from when you were young... that is why a kids can have an endless imagination because their is no pain of failure holding them back... great poem... very nostalgic.

[emmajoy]

What a thoughtful poem this is. Your words ARE how it is to be young; how secrets remain locked behind closed doors in neighbours' homes, behind the closed doors of so-called mighty leaders. Children do see life surrounded by brightness, that's what innocence is all about, and death hasn't a place in an innocent's world.

Yet, Craig .. bigger boys and girls soon play war or less gentle games - and they're not discouraged: games like that are said to be 'normal, healthy, just make-believe. And, then, before they know it, those youngsters are adults and - war and all its horrors become real.

' Maybe I was a fool to see only happy faces feel only the warmth of friendship in the world round me. ' No, you weren't a fool, my friend .. you were what all of Mankind should be - and we all know what that should be .. in whatever guise.

[Nancy Lee Shrader]

Oh to have the mind of a child in this day and age. Beautiful Write.

[Helena]

Beautiful insightful write.

"Maybe each
new sunrise
really is enchanted
and somehow
we all need
to come back
across ten
thousand
scarlet skies�"


Yes, I guess well all have that moment when our perfectly innocent soul is sullied
by the reality of this cruel world. I remember mine vividly.....I too thought nobody
ever died. Oh that we could all get back to that wonderfully carefee state of
an innocent child.....what a different world it would be.

Much enjoyed Craig!

Helena

[jenniewren (J.W. Bouwma..]

I didn't realize
all the pain
I would feel
as day turned
to night
and my tattered
memories turned
deep gray�


that is the stanza i know so very well.. funny how when we are children, we see only the halcyon things? even now, when i look back, i know some truly awful things happened to me and those i knew.. but its the softer memories that hold so much more weight...

[Marie Anzalone]

The teachers I have worked with have claimed that to find fulfillment as an adult, you need to be bale to revisit that time when we were children, and remember how to see the world through the eyes of a child. I do not think it is ignorance, or anything like that. I simply think that children are still closer to the source; that they remember the other side. For if life is eternal, and souls do not die, a lifetime is a very small season.

I loved the emotions that reading this evoked for me as I walked down the path of memory with you. It is true we do not see the hurt in the world, because we remember, as children, that we are here to be happy, blessed, and in love with life itself. I'm ready to start listening to my little girl again... how about you?

[Fran Marie]

A great piece, I think when we are kids there is a reason we see only the positive bright side~
like we are being protected again the evil that exists because we simply could not cope
if we knew every single bad thing that came into being~ Wonderful writing!

[bluessadmood]

Oh Craig ,I maybe the first one who read this..and I knew how great the idea behind this..
then I knew how great it is from the so many reviews that I see here..I liked and agree with most of them
but I am on no one side really,I swear ,but I point out to the review of my friend Orlando..
he came right to the point..oh that date 1989..I wish I never saw or lived this year..
it was like a turning point in the history of this doomed world..the loss of balance
If you read history well you will see why we are in the middle of all this trouble
of all this madness,I swear its a very ugly life especially if you come to these lands of the east
and have a close look from here..but I would not wish that for you..for you will see and witness
some of the ugliest things happening here..its all in here my friend ..what you see here and there is
just a reflection of whats going on in other places
I really dont have more to say than my friend Orlando already said..He summarized the whole picture,in few words
Lovely write..

[Sagela]

That was almost exactly like I was as a child. Yet again, I love how your pice conjured up images of memories of when I was kid. Thank you for sharing!

[LisetteCanWrite!]

Oh but if we could only hold that innocence for a lifetime.. my own memories reflected so much into this... I do not remember going to a funeral until I was 16.. whereby my mother thought it might be a good idea to take me to someone less close to the family to help me cope with the tidal wave to come. So many died in a row in my family after that point.. that it's hard to think I could hold any innocence beyond that point... your writing so touched the depths of the yearning of days spent in laughter, without knowledge of all that is bitter in life.

Boldly behaving in such manners as I truly thought my self invincible.. jumping from the highest bridges diving and swimming.. always daring to climb the tallest trees.. even when falling and being hurt physically.. I still got up and did it again.. funny how the things that touch us inside.. hurt worse.. and shape us. I truly played harder and rougher than most of the boys growing up.. such great memories!

May the souls taken from that shooting.. find that innocence again and peace whereever they may be.. and rest.. amongst the stars in the heaven's playground may them romp again. Thank you for sharing!

[Michael X]

wow, craig, this gave me chills like really, and it's the artful passion that conjures up so many emotions, your words bloom to life in ways that cause the reader to think, and dwell upon our own childhood, and upbringing, and the innocence that eventually fades into reality as it is stepping on a stone ground, vs, the plush grass of thought when we were a child, this is really brilliant, loved it my friend!