Old Friend

Old friend

Old friend I almost forgot the way you looked and your last name, kind of took me by surprise but! Hey got back on track and I am on track now. And so it was good to have you back in memory, back where you belong. For a while I thought I was going crazy, but I think you can understand, you know I love you but you have been gone for almost ten years now, I miss you and how! I decided to pass your old house; I was in the neighborhood, ok so I came from my new home 3000 miles away just to say hey. I miss you my friend, how are things where you are? Are you still the rising star when you ran the earth? Well I know that you could be nothing less, you were and are the best. I miss you my old friend, you had a great way of looking at this life, carefree but always her in the present, the future kind of slipped through that was what you said. And so you lived moment by moment, day by day, and you enjoyed every hour. I just couldn’t.

I saw your kids the other day they said to my “when you see dad say hey” I said with a distressed sure will, I am afraid they still don’t know you passed away. Boy! We both knew was a big pill. I wish that you could have seen them. Tom is so tall and Ben I can see he takes after you, short and thickset but he seems to be doing best, he seemed more genuine with that request. I miss you old friend, I really do, could have used a good debate last week, had too many problems and you would have taken things off my mind, you had that gift, you were good when it came to things like that. I really wish you had done like me, then I would know that you are safe, but you did not believe. I miss you my dearest friend I miss you, your imperfect ways was perfect just for me and I miss your ways a bit unorthodox, and a bit screwy but that was you, what is a guy to do? I would not be here if it weren’t for you, you put yourself in danger so I could live and then you gave and gave. You gave me the truth of God and that was love. So I could find the truth, and then I found me just because of you, if only your children knew!

Get this my friend had dinner with an old female friend, didn’t even know that she knew you, I don’t know how but then somehow your name came up and then, wow! Some how she was thrilled too, back then you were good too. Wow only if your children knew the real you, it seems as if you really made your mark, and it is good talk. I miss you my dearest old friend, I really do!
I still pray the way you showed me how, it works and how! I really miss you old friend and I will till the very end I love you, and I am almost there in forgiving you for leaving me here. But we are square and that is I guess fair you had no choice in the matter for a while it left me bitter but hey I am ok, I miss you now old friend.



Who Cares?

As I was walking in the slums one rainy night,
On the ground a letter lay in plain sight.
Inquisitive there to see,
What this letter had to say.

To my darling wife it is I,
I have failed you and the children for that I do cry.
I don’t know what I’m worth,
But I wish I were dead and buried beneath the earth.

I had my chance to choose,
I did and now I loose.
In essence I regret,
I hope this letter doesn’t come too late.

I love the little one,
You know of them I had been fund.
I have taken my course to try to be a man,
When I am finish I will make to you the best presentation.

Please kiss my little ones,
The letter now was done.
But as I looked around,
The only thing that I found.

Was the relic of a gun,
And there was blood all around.
So I asked what happened to the people standing there,
And this is what they had to share.

He really tried,
Not just to get along or just to survive
He had a God plan
To become a God fearing kind of man

He was so close…. Oh so very close,
But his wife and kids will never know.
How much this man went through no one knew,
And how he regrets the things he did ….to you.

But do you think that God ever knew?
I think so, yes I do.
But he was too far,
For anyone to help and pull him back through.

But the question is who cares?
The answer, I do.

By GtW o2-24-o9 cc

When The Day is Done is the Job?

When the Day is done is the Job?

Well I got up and saw the face in the mirror and did not like it, for some reason I did not look like the mainstream but I am! What is wrong with me, why do I feel that everything should be the way I see it and that everyone is all wrong? Now if I am not right then who is and why? Lots of questions are out there and lots of answers too. I can only stand on one and that is just what it is but right or wrong I will put it out there and see what you think.

So this journey begins and only you can tell the end because it really ends with you. Your thought matters and really should be heard but by whom and what for? This is it I am black and the other guy maybe a shade different, where do we take this and where do we say when. Because the rabbit trails are many we have to draw different lines in the sand at different times, for a couple of reasons. 1) The times are a changing and there are really different needs to be met. And 2) so that we have firm foundations to take this thing off the ground and not have good Ideas just die. The fact that I am of different color should not matter but it does, I cannot become that which I cannot see or have never been shown, I have to be shown the possibilities and I need to see the grown up me or something like me.

Well it comes back to this (color, religion, sex and so on) all the time and it makes a perfect since if you look at it from this side of the coin. We! From birth do what our parents has asked of us and we believe what they saw as our difficulties to overcome. But that is not all the media and the news have taken over, and said another story and showed us a different view. I am black and there are other colors of the rainbow that make the standards so different and the fight for some are not so clear, even today.

What to do? Well keep on pushing till it does not even matter; push the barriers out of the way for our children. The barriers like inequality and stigmatisms, and start to celebrate our differences and find the true element of love. We need to teach that some differences are there, but we have some same basic needs that are the same and that we are not without failure or fault. We can overcome the draw backs, and that each of us should be given a chance to do so and teach that forgiveness is not just a word, but it is an action that needs to be taken weather we like it or not. And now I would like to say the Job is not done it is just begun and we have so far to go before we rest. Here is a poem that I wrote some years ago.


Hugs

Here I am standing
My arms at my side
Puffing and blowing
Yet ready to cry

I am the least of your
Neighbors
In a small broken down shack
My front door I can’t open
So I enter from the back

I’ve been living alone here
For more than seven years
I saw when you moved in
I really didn’t care

I know where your church is
Just up the road
You never said anything to me
Not even hello

So what if I am real grumpy
And my life is full of sin
And yes I am a little smelly
But that’s the way I have been

Maybe if you had approached me
And treated me like a man
Maybe I would drop my guard
Then I would shake your hand

With just a little effort
Then God’s love can begin
If you say you love Jesus!
Then hug the lesser man

By GtW 1o-22-o3 cc

I would like to leave this one with you as well I think these go together.

Compassion



Compassion! Whenever I employ it,
My heart leaps for joy.
I am human, with faults!
That I know.

Humbly I express, I care!
Humbly I express, that I am blessed.

Please take my hand, let me truly help!
How else can I show compassion?

I know my faults, and I won’t call out yours.
Please take my hand! No agenda attached,
And I hope you can forgive me for all the things I lack.

By GtW o8-23-o2 cc

The Road on which We met

The Road on which we met

Wow! I didn’t know you yet but I could feel this strong magnetic pull, and for years I just knew that there would be someone that would be the just the core of me. I walked for years and met others that would make me regret and want to forget and have reservations but get this life was not done with me yet. I think that I heard a song go something just like this, we have only just began to live white lace and promises a kiss for luck and we are on our way, we have only began! Wow this song set the tone for why I held my position for so long.

One can only imagine who this person could be, and then the excitement comes when you start to think how they would look, and there are loads of flashing lights that carry hundreds of bits of information to the brain and everyone that you meet who even just have a nice personality, are now suspect to this game which you now play. So you start to breathe disappointment into your life, you corrupt your senses and there is a dull flavor to the taste of the opposite sex. Well this is not hatred or anything of such but the state in which you have got take ownership of, but the next day you go on and it now becomes another day and another.

So let’s play devil’s advocate and go to a place or places and imagine for just a bit; you are looking for the one thing that you seem not to have and that is love. We will make the ultimate female and see if anyone can fit, now remember that this is not real but in the mind.
She is kind, but before we go there lets us look and the first meeting and how she looks. This is the gal of your dreams and she looks like something or does that matter? Well! No it does not. But she is beautiful anyway, smooth skin and beautiful eyes and that is all. Oh I might as well put her height and a few more things after all I am going to be with her for the rest of my life and I can not afford top leave something out. Now do you see how this task can become burdensome and never ending? But the truth is that is what this world has done to us and the small things like this and many more prohibits us from doing the one thing which is deciding just to love the person whom God brings before you to love. We think of going out to get that person and what all they should have that the one person who we already have in front of us may be the one. And the sad part is we set ourselves up for failure. I met the one for me and I may have to be patient as to be on time with her but she first loves to give, she love this world and thinks it is beautiful. I am sure that she loves God and wants to live with her heart on the outside, wow this is great and get this she is the most beautiful woman in the world, why because I said so and no one can tell me different, my final answer.

I have being on this road for a long time and have realized that all the women I have had relationship with have great qualities and I was not there to bring out the best in them, nor was I myself the man I am now to show them the goodness that was in me that I bring to the table. So in conclusion this is to say what? I have been to the mountain top and I have seen the best that man and woman can be and I desire to be the best I can be and hope that just one woman sees the same and does it. Then I know that we could one day meet and no matter where she is or how she looks we were meant for each other because the God of the cosmos has a formula for stars like us to collide and make a big bang in our lives. And that my friends is true love, the workings of two people who decide to better themselves no matter what, then making the decision to love people and themselves and then be willing to love another to the end of life’s path. And the path they choose is ordered of God not by themselves and using the laws of truth and spirit to fulfill there meager existence.

The simple truth is we need to all live by higher rules than the ones we want to make up for ourselves, which fall short all the time and leave us lurking in the dark for answers, then end up reading someone’s self-help book that really does not pick you up from the inside. Please if I ever tell you something that I truly believe and it is that we really need to find out what true love is and just do it, and go absolutely crazy doing it to everyone then you will find out the good part of life.

I promise it works, make it a habit and make it stay.
Here is a poem that I hope you like.

HAND ME DOWNS

As I look through the book of old photographs,
My Grandmother looked so dignified, so set apart.
And as I go back in memory,
I smile with gratitude of the things she taught me.

I live a life now with treasured memory,
And use only hand me downs my grandmother gave to me.
She set me straight to look and see,
Prepared me for the world that has come to be.

She use to set us down with this big old bible book,
Said “gather round lets sing some hymns then all take a look.
There was not a day that we ever missed,
She did her job, and then she gave God thanks for this.

I remember Grandpa too just a man for to see,
When I become a man that is who fashioned me.
He thought the world of Christ and what he came to do,
I can hear the hand me downs ringing in my ear through and through.

As a boy I hated all the old hand me downs,
But today I wear them proud and strong.
They are not old rags like the ones I had,
They are the simple virtues that get you close to God and lets you know He is near.


By Guy T. Woods
4/12/04

The Day After

I first want to apoligize for the delay and promise that you would not have to wait that long again.

Your Friend For Life

Guy T Woods Sr


The day After

It is the day after and here come the pain and the very reasons why this day is so insane. Why do we do this every year? I want to bring to light something that may just as well be focused on today, now before it gets too bad or just get worst. It is the day after and we can see clearly the ones who have failed the ultimate test. This is the Valentines Day black hole. I love the opposite sex and one day would like to be reconciled with the true aspect of love and in a Godly way not the way that I see unfolded today. Valentines! Wow it is a big word and has been the very test that has made relationships either die of for most men cringe and die at the task to provide a pleasantry for the ones we love, and just provide a small token of our love for the ones that we claim to love. Now that has been said here goes. Who sets or creates the harmony between men and women and where does valentines come in with the social acceptance of the way that the opposite sex should act when it come to this day. Is there an illusion to us feeling that we could have an advantage in the game of Valentines and how does it play out as a pressure to each person to respond it an appropriate way according to whom? It is easy to see how this day has done so much damage to good people, who with out this day of expectancy would have lead good lives and not have the pressure otherwise. The very next day it is fall for the absentminded guy or gal who did not cross their tees or dot your I, rough! Life does have its way to be unfair but who cares anyway? Do you?
Then way do we penalize each other while we are just getting to know each other Love is a choice and if we do choose then try to live with the ups and the downs and there is always a sacrifice to be made. It would be just sad that because of the day after affect, we disband something good because we were unwilling to face the good and the bad about relationships. I promise! Not to live by the Valentine affect, but to live by another code and that is the road least traveled in life; I will not be moved by someone’s Idea of love. But be moved by an ideology that keeps me accountable. It is one that has made me correct myself time and time again not just to satisfy others but to hold true to a wholesome and Godly path of life which establishes the Christ in me. I will always have open arms for those who I encounter each day and live a life that is always loving mankind and very humbling.
I choose to love so I choose to give of myself and I choose to listen two times more than I speak. It will give me the advantage of knowing what and how much to give. I believe that it is in the listening that one can see or know what to give and if there is a sacrifice in that giving then it is better. Yes the day after is the day that we all dread, to the victor the spoils but if there are no victors then there is a lot of spoils to be had. I love you all because I choose to and I hope that I have set an example for those or someone to follow into a life of good relationship.

Please accept this poem as a step forward into a life of healthy relationships.

The Marital journey

Alas the moment has come,
The time for permanent vows.
To be together, in sickness and in health,
Till death do you part.

Now! On this road, you will find the worst,
But never fear, you will find, also the best.
These are all the moments,
Of the marital test.

You have made these vows, before God and man,
There, lies your support system.
God placed you together, new thoughts to share,
As Man and his wife, his precious dear.

God has set the manual, in the palm of your hands,
Refer to it, as your daily plan.
You are safe, be comforted,
The marital journey is a Godly thing.

Now as I witness, this majestic junction,
I pray for long life, and a lasting relation.
Please! Remember that you will be a symbol,
To represent God, before others and the youth of this world to see.

So when hardship comes, please do persevere,
I too, hold you both as a glimpse of things, someday I should share.
In all, I would like to stand and say, bravo!
Now! Be off and on your way.

Just a gift on your wedding day,
With lots of love; for both of you.

Guy T. Woods o2-26-o6

The Red eyes of Valentines