What Built Me

How I've learned of myself using word after word

Sadness that sinks me, but when written is cured

Lines that speak out of the thoughts that fill a mind

Heartbreaks and downfalls and lost things poetry helped me find

All the wrongs against me written in the late night

Hours past midnight spent writing of my plight

For when tears couldn't lighten the bitter in my heart

Black ink on white pages brought together pieces that fell apart

Yet it isn't always darkness that finds its way onto the pages

But memories of the beauty I've seen through many ages

All the falls that painted rainbows onto the chocolates of my eyes

And the sweet spring breezes that sang of baby blue skies

Like a photo album whose pictures became words and letters

Poetry became a looking glass into all the times that were better

Still the most important thing learned from this expression I call my friend

Is it's ability to make smiles and all the laughs it can commend

For as a child in that house with a sis and a single mother

The poems I would write brought out the love we had for one another

And giggles filled the rooms that at times felt alone

In that little brick house we made home with poetry and stone

Yes, we build words and verses of all the ways life can be

But it's these lines and verses that have built the life into me