Make A Difference

Story ID:	3801
Written by:	JANET KESSLER POLUDNIAK
Organization:	JUST ME
Story type:	Poem
Location:	Cayuga NY USA
Year:	2008
Person:	Everyone--about life and making choices.

This poem was written for a contest which is still ongoing. The form is Terza-Rima--used often in classic poetry. Basically, the rhyme scheme is:
A-B-A, B-C-B, C-D-C, D-E-D, E-F-E, etc. The poem closes with either one or two lines that fit the rhyme scheme of the middle line in the preceeding stanza. There is no limit of lines in the poem so long as the rhyme scheme continues in the proper pattern.


MAKE A DIFFERENCE
Copyright 2008, Janet K. Poludniak

Every man is running in a race,
not against another, by the way,
but challenged daily by that mirrored face,

"Have I done my best throughout this day?
Would a change serve better in the end?
Should I seek to find a better way?

Will folks scorn, or praise me as a friend?"
These are answers we alone can know;
Honesty will serve . . . on this depend.

Not the things we say, but what we show,
daily by the little things we do;
we can make a difference as we go:

ripples in the pool of "Changing Through,"
making each day better than the last.
“Have I need to alter what I brew?

Are there roadblocks present from the past,
things that keep my heart from empathy,
thwarting growth and changes that will last?”

Searching in the deepest part of me,
I find within a quality of life—
richer, fuller since Love set me free.

Safe, secure, unthreatened by the strife,
knowing I have found a better life.