Author: Jeff Shapiro

I play by different rules…
I growl at people I like…
Can smell fear, smell love…
Understand that all things make sense….eventually.

I know that love is never static…
That it transforms and improves everything it touches…
Fills my world with romance…
And tells me that the world only gets better when I get better.

For me, time passes differently…
It is like riding an arc full of color…
When I leap into its embrace…
I sail through the years.

For me, its never too late…
Never too early…
Never all red and confusing…
Never cold and dark.


I like small tables for easy conversation…
Talking about each other’s passions and wars…
You know, playing by different rules…
Adding just another dab of texture to my already miraculous life.

I love you,

Annie

Sometimes the sun comes up too soon…
Moving me from black and white into color…
Warm with glowing embers…
Close to the ground (like me) but getting taller by the minute.

Today, I’m not ready for the sun to come up…
To be on the receiving end of beauty…
I’m going over my long list of bad behavior…
Admiring my survival.

Sorry sun, I’m too busy studying my limitations…
My mind is like a storm at sea…
Racing through innumerable subjects…
My thoughts like a bickering bear.

Now the sun is dripping its pearls and diamonds…
Beckoning for my soul to awake…
To feel its reflection on my mountain of golden fur…
Screaming…
Wake up pup! I’ve turned on the lights just for you!

Some days I feel I need to reintroduce myself to the sun…
To think again how marvelous life really is
Stretch my paws to the sun…
And say “Hello, my name is Annie.”

I love you,

Annie

I am just a thread in the tapestry…
Filled with music and strange guttural noises…
Limitless possibilities…
My frayed edges being the coastlines of the sea.

Inside me is everything created in the universe…
The landscape of many galaxies…
I imagine it all as the image of life…
All present and visible in my heart.

I don’t believe in ritual…
I trust in music and beauty to show me the way…
Seeking meaning in everything I do…
And always searching for that mysterious scent (it could be a badger!)

I believe with love I can do anything in creation…
Breathe in the entire world…
I will never live on a crumbling castle…
There is something sad about those who do.

I come from no place at all…
Just a thread in the tapestry…
You are here also, connected to me…
That is why we can so freely share our hopes and dreams.

I love you,

Annie

Is someone hiding behind the beautiful?
Or is there only beauty itself?
If there is a He or a She who is hiding there…
I think they love pizzaz!

Come, stay in Her footsteps…
Don’t be afraid, creation senses your fear…
Don’t be surprised if She takes a peculiar turn…
Don’t worry that your book has only blank pages.

Ahead there is so much dazzle and flash…
Flowing freely wild…
Quite beyond thinkable…
Speaking in barely more than a whisper.

Soon you will see that You are a green field…
A basket full of flowers…
All of heaven and all of earth…
Creation has many names and one of them is You.

I think there is someone hiding behind the beautiful…
Waiting with the brightest of smiles…
It is time to thank the beautiful…
And the beautiful is you.

I love you,

Annie

How do I become one with the wind?
With it’s strangely changing voices…
All dressed in the brilliance of the spectrum…
Less form and more colors.

Lost to weather and waves…
The looming cliffs behind it…
Never slowing its motion…
Electrifying.

But how do I become one with the wind?
Hop onto a cloud that is always moving?
Join an invisible symphony with no first note or last…
Climb onto an insurmountable wave with no beginning or end.

I think I figured it out!

First, I must realize that there is no such thing as perfection…
And accept that life is only a series of unpredictable moments…
That everyone’s heart is just one shape…
And let my failures and disappointments remain buried in the ground.

Maybe you would like to join me…
We could zip through lands of light and darkness…
See all the wonders of the world…
Be beautiful, powerful and life giving…
Become one with the wind.

I love you,

Annie

Me, I’m still a mystery…
I am apt to create anything…
Eager to get into the spotlight…
With me, anything goes.

I can do certain things and not others…
I know some answers and not others…
I live between love and confusion and exhilaration…
Understanding that facts and faith can be two different things.

I am shaped thus so…
My short legs help in my wanderings…
There is always a treasure reserved for me out there, somewhere…
Each day I must go out and find it.

So is this enough, or should I have more?
Should I let the fortune teller draw a single card?
Become a monk pup and only pray?
Or simply study the words of the wise?

I don’t think so!
The audience of my life is only me…
Me, like you, have been given the most wonderful of gifts…
I unwrap them anew each day…
And am always at peace.

I love you,

Annie

Your laughter makes me smile…
Even though I may not know what you are laughing about…
It is like celebrating a victory…
A string of diamonds, pearls and emeralds.

Casual, not very elegant…
Like you and your heart have become friends…
Like the warmth of grandma’s parlor…
Inviting me to please come in.

Making all things one…
Forgetting all the messy secrets…
It doesn’t contain any complicated letters…
Doesn’t need to balance the wobbly bowl.

It is a rough sketch of perfection…
With so much strength in the eyes…
It doesn’t need to finish the story…
Doesn’t care if it is ever finished.

Thank you for making me smile…
With your mighty invisible breath…
It has replaced my stormy expression…
And made my day.

I love you,

Annie

Oh, starry night…
Streaking, shimmering, blinking lights…
An elixir to all life below…
Here I can make myself one with the universe.

It is all perfectly in tune like an orchestra…
Not like our “eat or be eaten” world…
It’s voice quite clear, but few listen…
Taking for granted their greatest treasure.

I wait and wait for it to happen…
I can’t stare at anything for long before it turns into food…
The stars turn into chocolate covered animals…
And dance all about.

Oh how I wish I could eat a star…
But I think that would mess up the universe…
And I wouldn’t be following the philosopher’s dream…
Trading the eternal, for a piece of chocolate (Tough choice.)

Maybe I wasn’t made to be a philosopher…
Once a hound, always a hound…
Tonight I’ll try to count the stars again….
But I think the same thing will happen.

I love you,

Annie

I can see you, seeing me…
Feel how you are considering me…
Your eyes fading in and out of view…
Hoping to connect to my world.

I was afraid that you would never see me…
My heart, so often hidden in the sand…
Because no one takes me seriously…
Yet I’m smart, compassionate and real.

With your smiling approval…

I seem to be growing taller…
Flooded with beauty…
Somewhat exposed…
The canopy of black silk lifting.

You ask…

Where is your ship going?
Who is on board?
Are you an ancient mariner?
Please don’t disappear back into the horizon.

We all know…
Fear of being alone is worse than about anything else…
I can see you, seeing me…
And I thank you.

I love you,

Annie

On Wednesday I am going to be 15 years old

In all these years I have found…

It is not easy to listen to my heart…
Sometimes it speaks of sadness…
Sometimes it speaks of joy…
Sometimes it tells me to cross an endless ocean…
Sometimes it tells me, I am already there.

It says to me, “If you can conceive it, you can do it!”
Or, “It is time to prove everyone wrong…”
Often, it scrunches its face in confusion…
Wondering, “Why am I going so fast.”

It repeats my life with every heartbeat…
Harmonizes with the din of the rain…
Shifts the pieces of my puzzle together…
And when I don’t listen it shows its teeth like a wolf.

It speaks only in brief and simple words…
Of courage…
Of fear…
Always calling for action.

Today it is telling me, “Be happy!”
It is time to race through the waves…
That today is a beginning of a new dawn…
“So, listen, listen, listen.”

I love you,

Annie