Eyes

The best poems are those that you find a year after you wrote them. For example, this one:

Too many confrontations.

Too many disputations.

We only have so much

and yet we try to use

everything.

So many places are for us to view

and see without blemish.

But that is disappearing

as people use up what is there.

The more we use, the less we can see.

Protection is essential

for keeping the world

a place where we can live.

Everyone is different and we all have different

ideas and beliefs, and even tho

se who believe the same thing

understand it differently.

A world without tolerance is selfish.

Demonic.

Careless.

Not having tolerance is like not having eyes.

You see only

what you want to see.

Without tolerance, man is blind.

He doesn’t see the similarities

between everyone.

But he is afraid of what he does see.

The differences…

If only he saw everything,

saw that everyone was human

like him.

We need to open our eyes.

We can’t see only

the color of the skin,

the look in the eye,

or only hear

the accent in the voice.

If we open our eyes

we’ll see the lives behind the faces;

the man behind the skin.

We speak of what we know,

yet we know nothing

and say so in our words.

For we are not only what is seen,

but also what is heard

and read.

For the world is not only what is seen,

but also what is learned

when we open our eyes.