I

Believe

Firmly

Intear-streaked

Happy endings

In the soul of Mother Earth

Andin her children.

And I believe

That good things happen

Tothose who sit in the sunshine

And sing their hearts out

Withoutacoustic guitars.

And I believe,

Yes,

I believe in WaltWhitman

Make fun if you will.

I believe in not caring

Whomakes fun

And in caring deeply.

I believe in caring

Foranyone who needs a helping hand

That is true chivalry,

Not whoholds the door

For whom.

I believe in grammar

And disjointedtrains

Of thought.

I believe

In AttentionDeficit

Disorder.

I believe in chaos

And myself

Andrebellion against rebellion

Why are you laughing?

I,

Ibelieve in math teachers

And science teachers

Historyteachers

Music and psychology teachers

Art teachers

Ibelieve in English teachers

The Great Gatsby

And HuckleberryFinn

I believe in Jim.

I believe

That it's okay to start apoem

With the words

"I believe"

You're laughingagain.

But hey,

You can't argue

With what I say Ibelieve

(My mother cuts down that argument

In ten secondsflat

In ninth-grade bible,

She tells me in triumph).

Ibelieve in my mother

Does that make me not

Seventeen?

Ibelieve in seventeen

And in Seventeen

And in not beingsnide:

Stop laughing

I didn't say I read it!

Ibelieve

In losing track

Of the original train of thought

AndI believe in writing

Poetry at midnight,

The weak lightfalling

On purple psychedelic

Mushroom pajama pants;

Ibelieve in my pants.

I believe in the sixties

And theseventies

And the fifties

And the nineties.

I believe inNorman Rockwell

Stan Rodgers

The Beatles

Peter, Paul andMary.

I believe

In my sister's friend Mary

A beautifullittle girl

With cerebral palsy:

I believe in a life

Inwhich Mary walks her walker

Through the halls

Of our highschool

Pulling straight A's

In honors math.

I believe inschool

And in desks

And in alphabetical order

Starting withQ.

I believe that wings

Are something every human beinghas

Just nobody knows how to use them.

But listen - Ibelieve

That the best thing you can do for

yourself

Isbelieve;

Now will you please stop laughing?

I'm making apoint!
.