"After a While" -- All Time Favorite

"After a While"


After a while you learn

the subtle difference between

holding a hand and chaining a soul

and you learn

that love doesn't mean leaning

and company doesn't always mean security.

And you begin to learn

that kisses aren't contracts

and presents aren't promises

and you begin to accept your defeats

with your head up and your eyes ahead

with the grace of woman, not the grief of a child

and you learn

to build all your roads on today

because tomorrow's ground is

too uncertain for plans

and futures have a way of falling down

in mid-flight.

After a while you learn

that even sunshine burns

if you get too much

so you plant your own garden

and decorate your own soul

instead of waiting for someone

to bring you flowers.

And you learn that you really can endure

you really are strong

you really do have worth

and you learn

and you learn

with every goodbye, you learn...

© 1971 Veronica A. Shoffstall


(Author's note: This poem has been plagiarized, bastardized, renamed, reworded, redesigned, expanded and reduced. But it is my work, which I wrote at the age of 19 and had published in my college yearbook. Why anyone would want to claim it is beyond me, but for what it's worth, I wrote it, and if I'd known it was going to be this popular, I'd have done a better job of it. - V.S.)

Mapping Ya'all

Whew man, Orkut is really rockin these days . I totally love this new feature where they show a mashup of your friends list and Google Maps. Totally awesome, i need to increase my friends circle in the midwest! Who's place would i crash at when i go to Denver ?!!

Music Recommendations - Part Deux

• Blue Oyster Cult -Don't Fear the Reaper
• The Who - Teenage Wasteland
• Keane -Somewhere only We Know
• John Lennon - Imagine
• Queen - Bohemian Rhapsody
• Lynard Skynard - Freebird
• Five for Fighting - 100 Years
• Pearl Jam - Jeremy
• Nirvana - All Apologies
• Thin Lizzie - Whiskey in a Jar
• Pink Floyd - Coming Back to Life
• Ellis Paul - The World ain't Slowing Down
• Greenday - Boulevard of Broken Dreams
• Tom Petty - You don't know how it Feels
• Tom Petty - Last Dance with Mary Jane