Keep your eyes upon
me,
Keep me in your sight.
Hold me down the crooked road,
Lead me to the light.
The road I'm on is dark,
I'm not sure I know the way;
Yet, with you right beside me,
I'm certain I won't stray.
Protect me from the world,
I know we'll make it through.
Give me all the strength I need-
Let me lean on you.
--Megan Stroup
Have a seat upon a
cloud and make yourself at home
You are now inside my dreams, inside a book, inside a poem.
Where anything can happen if you only make it real
Plunge into my waters if you're not afraid to feel.
Take off your shoes and close your eyes, relax upon my sand
Join me in my land of dreams, reach out and take my hand.
Let me share my dreams with you until you find your own
I'll take you there if you believe, take mine out on loan.
Where birds are words so gracefully they glide across the sky
Leave behind the worries, here the rules do not apply.
Pick my flowers if you like and plant a seed or two
Paint the sky in polka dots if you do not like it blue.
Climb my trees, face your fears; erase them one by one
See the world from up above and don't stop at the sun.
When the world stars raining down and the sun is out of sight
Let your dreams control your mind and help you through the night.
There's a place inside my dreams for all who care to roam
So have a seat upon a cloud and make yourself at home.
--Danielle Rosenblatt
My friend, I need
you now-
Please tame me by the hand.
Stand by me in my hour of need,
Take time to understand.
Take my hand, dear friend,
And lead me from this place.
Chase away my doubts and fears,
Wipe the tears from off my face.
Friend, I cannot stand alone.
I need your hand to hold,
The warmth of your gentle touch
In my world that's grown so cold.
Please be a friend to me
And hole me day by day.
Because with your loving hand in mine,
I know we'll find they way.
--Becky Tucker
"Friends
forever," you promised.
"Together till the end."
We did everything with each other.
You were my best friend.
When I was sad, you were by my side.
When I was scared, you felt my fear.
You were my best support-
If I needed you, you were there.
You were the greatest friend,
You always knew what to say:
You made everything seem better.
As long as we had each other,
Everything would be okay.
But somewhere along the line,
We slowly came apart.
I was here, you were there,
It tore a hole in my heart.
Things were changing,
Our cheerful music reversed its tune.
It was like having salt without pepper,
A sun without its moon.
Suddenly we were miles apart,
Two different people, with nothing the same.
It was as if we hadn't been friends;
Although we knew deep in our hearts
Neither one of us was to blame.
You had made many new friends
And luckily, so had I
But that didn't change the hurt-
The loss of our friendship made me cry.
As we grow older, things much change
But they don't always have to end.
Even though it is different, now,
You will always be my friend.
--Phyllis Lin
My New Best Friend
Today I met a great new friend
Who knew me right away
It was funny how she understood
All I had to say
She listened to my problems
She listened to my dreams
We talked about love and life
She'd been there, too, it seems
I never once felt judged by her
She knew just how I felt
She seemed to just accept me
And all the problems I'd been dealt
She didn't interrupt me
Or need to have her say
She just listened very patiently
And didn't go away
I wanted her to understand
How much this meant to me
But as I went to hug her
Something startled me
I put my arms in front of me
And went to pull her nearer
And realized that my new best friend
Was nothing but a mirror
--Retold by Kimberely Kirberger
When I ask you to
listen to me
and you start giving me advice,
you have not done what I asked.
When I ask you to listen to me
and you begin to tell me why
I shouldn't feel that way,
you are trampling on my feelings.
When I ask you to listen to me
and you feel you have to do something
to solve my problem,
you have failed me,
strange as that may seem
Listen! All I ask is that you listen.
Don't talk or do-just hear me.
Advice is cheap; 20 cents will get
you both Dear Abby and Billy Graham
in the same newspaper.
And I can do for myself; I am not helpless.
Maybe discouraged and faltering,
but not helpless.
When you do something for me that I can
and need to do for myself,
you contribute to my fear and
inadequacy.
But when you accept as a simple fact
that I feel what I feel,
no matter how irrational,
then I can stop trying to convince
you and get about this business
of understanding what's behind
this irrational feeling.
And when it's clear, the answers are
obvious and I don't need advice.
Irrational feelings make sense when
we understand what's behind them.
Perhaps that's why prayer works, sometimes,
for some people-because God is mute,
and he doesn't give advice or try
to fix things.
God just listens and lets you work
it out for yourself.
So please listen, and just hear me.
And if you want to talk, wait a minute
for your turn-and I will listen to you.
--Author Unknown
You tell on yourself
by the friends you seek,
By the very manner in which you speak,
By the way you employ your leisure time,
By the use you make of dollar and dime.
You tell what you are by the things you wear,
By the spirit in which your burdens you bear,
By the kind of things at which you laugh,
By the records you play on the phonograph.
You tell what you are by the way you walk,
By the things of which you delight to talk,
By the manner in which you bear defeat,
By so simple a thing as how you eat.
By the books you choose
from the well-filled shelf;
In these ways and more, you tell on yourself;
So there's really no particle of sense
In an effort to keep up a false pretense.
--Peer Counsellor Workbook
