My Blessings

As I sit and look around me

I see no treasures bought with gold

But many are the blessings

That are mine to have and hold.

I have my family and my friends

The things that I love best

I have food to still my hunger

And I have a place to rest.

I have my pen and paper

I can write a poem of love

Or of beauty all around us

Put there by God above.

I can write of desperation

When the will to live is gone

I can write of tears and sorrow

And of a love gone wrong.

I can write of people's feelings

As they live from day to day

And the reason I can do so

Is because I've felt that way.

God gave to me a life ---

To do with as I would

He enabled me to experience

The bad, the sad, the good.

There He gave to me the will to write

The things I've seen and done

And maybe through my writing

I can help someone.

As you read my poems ---

And see my life unfold

You can see the things that matter

Are not those we buy with gold.

You can see that each of us

Must, in his own way

Use the blessings given us 

As we live from day to day.

Pearl E. Cain