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JOSIE'S POEMS

Reflective/Discussion Poems

By Josie Whitehead

Sept 2016 - 13 .jpg
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Secondary Schools
DARE TO BE DIFFERENT

By Josie Whitehead
Dare to be Different

Did you ever hear a flower complain,

     From in its flower bed?

Do yellow daisies want to change

     Into some poppies red? - - -

 

And does the field mouse in a field

     Complain that it is small? - - 

And do giraffes show off with pride

     Because they’re very tall?

 

Do horses wish that they were lions?

     Do worms wish they were bees?

Perhaps the ants are jealous 

    That they can’t jump high like fleas.

 

So we human beings should rejoice

     For how we look and speak,

For each and every one of us

     Has qualities unique.

 

The things which matter most of all

     Are not shown on our skin,

It’s not the language that we speak,

    But the heart that lies within.

 

How dull the world would seem to be

      If each flower were the same

And if we all looked much alike -

     Oh!  What a dreadful shame!

 

Now think of all the ones you love:

     They’re surely not the same.

Write down the things you really like

      Beneath each of their names.

 

Be thankful for our differences -

    The identity we hold.

It’s these which make us valuable –

     More valuable than gold.

 

Copyright on all my poems

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DARE TO BE DIFFERENT:  I really do mean this.  I'm 83 years' old, so probably older than most of you, but I've learnt in my lifetime that it is so important to accept yourself as the person you are, and to accept that your abilities and looks will be different to many others - but, so what?  I wouldn't have written these poems in the style in which I have written them if I'd gone along with everyone on the writing website I belonged to because they told me that rhyme and rhythm were old-fashioned and definitely OUT in this day and age - and I have to admit that there was bullying and outright rudeness shown in their comments.  BUT - imagine their surprise when an educational publisher market-researched all the poems I'd written in schools for 9 months, and came back to me to say that of the 400 poems I'd then written, the teachers and children had difficulty in choosing which ones NOT to have published - and so he published most of them in five books, and I've continued writing for you all ever since.  Don't forget:  Dare to be different, develop your own skills, and be thankful that we have these differences because 'It's these which make us valuable - more valuable than gold!' - Josie 


 
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