I often wonder how life would be

without the having the outlet of writing poetry

I'd imagine my days would be full of gloom

I would probably suffocate from holding in these feelings

I don't try to dwell on what ifs

so instead I'd like to dedicate some words

to everyone who ever influenced me to write

thanks to ........

my 1st grade teacher Ms. Mynhier

who taught my class about poetry

we read Shel Silverstein books almost daily

who would of thought 20 years

and thousands of poems later

I'd be in love with the same thing

I read about in those books

I was ahead of my time writing about love

at the innocent age of six

not truly understanding the concept

but I got the gist

I used to start every poem with ....

roses are red violets are blue

now I use my own original words

blazing my own trail

maybe using my voice

could make someone else become

under the Influence........

my teacher introduced this whole new world

to me , I grabbed the baton and ran with it

my words have circled around the globe

and I couldn't have done it without her