She smiles for the camera;
Since a young girl she’s been taught
to show a brave face to the world:
Never bare ones inner thoughts.

She smiles for the camera
And disguises feeling blue.
She thought that she would be his bride.
She never guessed he’d prove untrue.

She smiles for the camera
With her auburn hair undone.
So when people see this image
They’ll think:”How happy this one was.”

She smiles for the camera
With a heart that nears its break.
You might think she’s doing well,
She intends that you make that mistake.

The pain and anguish she endures
Are daggers of the mind,
Concealed beneath the smiling face
Of the girl he left behind.

There were reports of a shooting
Someone called Nine -one -one.
Another young man dead-
all because of a gun.
I heard a woman weeping
as I ran to the scene.
She held her dead son in her arms
She held the death of his dreams.
Dusk was yielding to darkness
on this unholy night.
As she keened for her child
in the yellow streetlight.
As the warmth left his body
She refused my pleas to yield
As if holding him to her
made his dying not real.
The thought crossed my mind,
as I heard his mother moan,
That I had seen this once before,
as a sculpture in stone.

I'll be seeing you
In all the old familiar places
That this heart of mine embraces
All day and through
In that small cafe
The park across the way
The children's carousel
The chestnut trees
The wishing well

I'll be seeing you
In every lovely summer's day
In everything that's light and gay
I'll always think of you that way
I'll find you in the morning sun
And when the night is new
I'll be looking at the moon
But I'll be seeing you

I'll be seeing you
In every lovely summer's day
In everything that's light and gay
I'll always think of you that way
I'll find you in the morning sun
And when the night is new
I'll be looking at the moon
But I'll be seeing you

It is a simple stone to honor a piece of Earth.
It asks the passerby a question.
It is a challenge
And a meditation:

“Oh, if a man tried to take his time on Earth
And prove before he died what one man’s life could be worth-
I wonder what would happen to this world.”

Yes Harry, I sometimes wonder too
But few among the living are as generous as you.

I place a smooth simple stone upon his stone
to let him know that he is not forgotten.


Thirty Eight years gone, but not forgotten.

I wasn’t meant to be like this.
I wasn’t born this way.
I started out an optimist,
Not one draped in shades of grey.
But Cynicism settled in
as I reached middle age.
My youthful enthusiasms dimmed
And I sadly turned the page.
I became the man Wilde once described
In “Lady Windermere’s fan”
I didn’t want to be like this,
I trust you understand.
I lost the simple joy of youth;
The innocence and longing.
I know the price of everything
But of their Value, nothing

Breakup *** is oft the best.
That last time you see your Love undressed.
A few last moments to grab for joy.
No time for subtlety or being coy.

I remember it like yesterday,
though forty years have come and gone.
The last time I sampled of your charms
when last I held you in these arms .

The Love triangle I so rued then,
has come to nothing in the end.
We both wed others in Life's comic play
and consigned our Love to yesterday

The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face
Roberta Flack


The first time ever I saw your face
I thought the sun rose in your eyes
And the moon and the stars were the gifts you gave
To the dark and the endless skies

The first time ever I kissed your mouth
I felt the earth move in my hand
Like the trembling heart of a captive bird
That was there at my command my love

And the first time ever I lay with you
I felt your heart so close to mine
And I knew our joy would fill the earth
And last till the end of time my love

The first time ever I saw your face
Your face, your face