If You Could Hear My Heart … An Expression of Writing Across Generations by Cheryl Cunnigham

photo by in a N.Y. State Of Mind

If you could hear my heart…
What would it say to you?
Could you hear the bond between us
Would the message be clear to you?
Could you feel the fear inside
For one-day we will not speak
Angels will remove one of our souls
To watch over those left who are weak.

If you could hear my heart…
Would you hear words never spoken?
If all the absence was written into verse
Could you hear a heart that was broken?
Would the suffering be noisy and offensive
Maybe quiet, still and scheming
When confronted would resentment be bitter
Or healing, caring and redeeming

If you could hear my heart…
And listen to the fear it holds
That your precious young life will be cut short
By forces unseen and untold.
The anguish you’d hear would be haunting
Worry steals time like a thief
The mere image of burying a child
Might sound heavy and laden with grief.

If you could hear my heart…
And examine the joy inside
You could search through the hopes and the dreams
It holds for your creative mind.
My heart would sound like a choir
Angels shouting with voices raised
You are riding high upon their wings
Singing and shouting out praise.

If you could hear my heart…
Would you truly know the pain?
You’d hear and feel the misery
Caused by careless choices made.
My heart holds many sounds
Some forgotten, some sad, and some still
Music of a life that was halted
By addiction and lack of will.

If you could hear my heart…
That overflows with color and rhyme
You would hear the beating of a life long love
That God placed in my hands just in time.
The colorful picture you’ve painted
Of happiness and memories to come
You have freed my soul for expression
And dreams full of love, hope, song.

by Cheryl Cunningham (Mother)

If I Could Hear Your Heart

If I could hear your heart
I would hear “I love you, I love you”
It reminds me of how much
Someone cares for me

If I could hear your heart,
I would hear it pumping
With pure unconditional love

If I could hear your heart
I would not just hear thump, thump, thump, thump
I would hear much more

It would sound like a lot of admiration
For one that you love

by Trevor Rathburn,age 14 (Son)

If You Could Hear My Heart

If you could hear my heart…
What would it say?
“I’ve pumped a long, long while
with a few stops along the way”
“I’ve carried your secret burdens
Born down the lengths of time
And worked when the world was sleepping
To keep my rhythm for sake of rhyme…”

If you could hear my heart…
What would it say?
“Now I must think of rest,
Silence the speech within my holder’s breast
The nightshift’s work is done.”

by Betty Gibson  (Grandmother)