This family and children's poetry collection will comprise of twenty poems with illustrative elements which will focus upon topics such as happiness, family, wisdom, purpose, obstacles, trials, pain, hope and dreams etc. in the the Hunt for Happiness which will be the core theme of the collection:
Contents List:
- The Hunt for Happiness & the Tree of Wisdom
The Hunt for Happiness & the Tree of Wisdom Written by Zaylee Knowles (pending finalization)
A sad boy went on a wander one day in the nearby woods to see if he could find some happiness,
Then sat down near a very large tree that he found which he felt would provide a good place to rest,
The tree of wisdom didn't speak for a moment to see if the boy would stick around his trunky base for long,
But as some tears fell down the young man's face the wise tree began to encourage him to try to be strong.
Climb in-between my roots and I'll tell you about life, the tree kindly said, as a branch leant down to point the way,
You will find lots of soft moss there and some fallen leaves that came to visit me and then chose to stay,
Although my woody, hard stick edges aren't a palace you are more than welcome to stick around,
And my woody home of nature does provide some care if you don't mind sitting on the ground.
Happiness comes to visit your heart daily but often fleetingly because you may not see the efforts joy has made,
Because sometimes sadness and anger can become obstacles that will block and stand in your heart's way,
So if you see happiness floating by like a stick of joy travelling down life's river or your daily life stream,
Then you must catch and hold onto that moment before it floats away and disappears just like a dream.
Happiness cannot find a comfortable place to live and grow in your heart if there is too much sadness standing in the way,
And so you must clean out all the wilting leafy remnants of any sad yesterdays before you can enjoy the happiness of a new today,
Because if your mind dwells and lives in the disappointments from yesterday then that sad weight can overload your heart,
And so you must give happiness a fresh place to live and reside as each new day dawns and then tries to start.
Upon the young man's face there was a thoughtful expression as he thought about what the wise tree had to say,
Because he felt that the wise tree was so clever and very wise in such a natural, wooden, branchy, sticky way,
How did you grow so tall you must be very wise, the young man finally said, as he sat down upon the soft green springy moss,
Because I've never seen a tree that's grown so high and so you must have been alive for a lot of years and seen a lot of frost.
Wisdom, the tree said, is like a flower's seed that the wind whisks away and then whirls around and around,
And sometimes it can fall on open minds and fertile soils and at other times upon the hard, stony ground,
But when wisdom falls onto hard, stony surfaces you will notice that it will never grow into anything magnificent at all,
And you’ll find that the seeds of wisdom cannot predict where they can land safely or where each one will start to fall.
Nature has been good to me at times but also tough and so I have learnt to grow from the strain, the tree began to explain,
Because I have learnt to stand firmly through many years of stormy weather, some hard hailstones and many torrents of rain,
The storms made my bark harder and tougher and the rains gave the soils and my roots the nutrients that they need to grow,
And so even though there can be tough moments each one can help you to grow inside as life fertilizes your human soul.
Quite often my branches provide a shelter to those in search of a peaceful resting place from life and nature's storms,
And so you see I understand how life's human storms can be hard at times to battle against for very long,
So whenever you feel stuck or lost in sadness or you cannot reach for a branch of happiness as you travel through life each day,
Just come and visit me because I'll let you sit on my branches and lift you up into the sky so that you can find a happier life pathway.
Written by Jill Thrussell @ 2022 All Rights Reserved