The expression "live and learn" might sound cliché, but it's true. We generally learn life lessons from mistakes we make and from the defining moments ... Read more
A Love Poem
My toy you are an open door and I see everything you can become I can become we will become together like shoelaces or Velcro or sunshine and cut ... Read more
A Year in Art
"The snow had begun in the gloaming, and busily all the night had been heaping field and highway with a silence deep and white." —James Russell ... Read more
Advice and Encouragement
You have better things to do than worry why others aren't taking what you have to offer. Don't waste your magic on people who won't be moved by it. ... Read more
Aging
There must be a day or two in a man's life when he is the precise age for something important. —Franklin Pierce Adams Middle age occurs when you are ... Read more
Almost a Whisper
Without a word so barely heard meant just for me breathed in my ear my heart is won and so I fall Copyright © 2002 Patricia Petro • All rights ... Read more
An Awakening
Sometimes you have to go far away from home before you can understand why what you have might be too much. Several years ago, I went to Mexico for ... Read more
At First and 1st
Here you cross on red with caution heads turned in watchful wait rouged cheeks and ruby lips on models matrons mothers men wearing red and heads in ... Read more
Autumn Blessings
Night, which in autumn seems to fall from the sky so suddenly, chilled us. —Jules Barbey d'Aurevilly, The Crimson Curtain Her pleasure in the walk ... Read more
Baby Boy Blue
Some memories come easily, like a movie reel running through my mind. Just snippets . . . bits and pieces here and there . . . of life with my ... Read more
Be Mindful of the Moment
The here and now is all we hold through times of joy and sorrow. We may watch fulsome years unfold— or may not see tomorrow. Be mindful of the ... Read more
Be My Love
Once I rode a horse wild through fields of green knee-deep in buttercup meadows and fiery woods that came with fall bareback and toes free hair ... Read more
Beginnings
It had been a pivotal year for me. Though I was well-past the sad events that had left me lonely with an empty nest, I was still bridging that space ... Read more
Better with Age
They say that wisdom comes with age. The older you get, the wiser you are. You live and learn. Experience is the best teacher. Yada yada yada. Even ... Read more
By Firelight
We sit our backs to the fire on chenille cushions in golden warmth legs outstretched and intertwined like our souls from the day we met forgetting ... Read more
Change
Nowadays change is around every corner; in my day it was only around the expected ones. —V. L. Allineare The need for change bulldozed a road down ... Read more
Choosing To Be Happy
Everyone wants to be happy. Whether it comes from fulfillment in our work, contentment in our relationships, pride in our children, or passion in our ... Read more
Cloud Nine
I am alone and complete and completely alone here in my room I burn candles and incense and memories with soft music playing or silence I dance when I ... Read more
Comes the Spring
I wait for spring . . . to fold away the threads of winter in lavender scent windows drawn wide as early dawn spills in through gossamer ... Read more
Coming Up Empty
No man or woman is worth all your tears; and the only one who is, will not make you cry. I don’t know how I’m supposed to feel the experience is ... Read more
Courage and Strength
It is easy to be brave from a safe distance. —Aesop History, despite its wrenching pain, cannot be unlived, but if faced with courage, need not be ... Read more
Crazeee Daze
The woman was me broken and bleeding from needing to see him weeping and hurt deep within reeling and feeling my life’s up in smoke each hazy day in ... Read more
Curiosity Shop
A shop in town with windows draped in lost and found kept secrets from another day escaping little drawers whipped together in careless array caught ... Read more
Desires
A desire to be observed, considered, esteemed, praised, beloved, and admired . . . is one of the earliest, as well as the keenest, dispositions ... Read more
Diamond Drops
Arise, dear Earth, from winter’s sleep and feel the gentle rain, the world awash with liquid hope, as springtime comes again. Raindrops fall in ... Read more
Dreams
Far away, there in the sunshine, are my highest aspirations. I may not reach them, but I can look up and see their beauty, believe in them, and try to ... Read more
Drowned in a Raindrop
Liquid, alive, and agleam You gently soaked through my skin As the drops turned into a stream My heart was yours to win Sometimes your ripples are ... Read more
Fabulous Female
I am woman-hear-me-roar. I sing this anthem joyously, not to make a political statement, but as a celebration of my own strength, courage, and ... Read more
Family
There's something like a line of gold thread running through a man's words when he talks to his daughter, and gradually over the years it gets to be ... Read more
Fear Factor
So haunting was the darkened night so chilling that I found I petrified with morbid fright at every eerie sound Be brave calm down I told ... Read more
Finding the Right Words
"My poems are about life, living, love . . . and surviving those setbacks we all have that feel so world-shattering when they happen." —Patricia ... Read more
Flower Fairy Alphabet
Spring-Time by Dolly Radford In the distant woods are blowing Tender buds and blossoms sweet, Fragrant leaves and grasses glowing From the touch of ... Read more
Flowers and Gardens
For myself I hold no preferences among flowers, so long as they are wild, free, spontaneous. Bricks to all greenhouses! Black thumb and cutworm to the ... Read more
Flowers: Legends and Lore
Amaryllis - According to legend, Amaryllis was a shy, timid maiden who fell deeply in love with Alteo, a shepherd with Hercules' strength and Apollo's ... Read more
Forgive and Forget
"I can forgive, but I cannot forget" is only another way of saying, "I will not forgive." Forgiveness ought to be like a canceled note—torn in two and ... Read more
Friends and Friendship
When we're looking for compassion, it's about connecting with the right person at the right time about the right issue. —Dr. Brene Brown To know ... Read more
Gratitude
There is not a more pleasing exercise of the mind than gratitude. It is accompanied with such an inward satisfaction that the duty is sufficiently ... Read more
Grief and Pain
It is dangerous to abandon one's self to the luxury of grief. It deprives one of courage, and even of the wish for recovery. —Henri-Frederic ... Read more
Happiness
What sunshine is to flowers, smiles are to humanity. These are but trifles, to be sure; but scattered along life's pathway, the good they do is ... Read more
Heavenly Love
I never thought I’d live to know an angel here on earth with easy smiles and gentleness he fuels my life’s rebirth He whiles away his daily ... Read more