Realise Life’s Dreams: an inspirational poem
We all have dreams and goals growing up, but how many do we actually pursue to fulfilment? Life is too short to waste but often we don’t realise that until it is too late. Realise life’s dreams while you can. You never know what the future may hold, or how many years you have ahead to achieve your goals.
Realise Life’s Dreams
by John Hansen © 2015
Absence makes the heart grow fonder,
Or so the saying goes.
Sometimes this seems to be the case,
And I am one who knows.
Whenever you must go away
And for a time we part,
I dwell on all the memories
That are stored inside my heart.
When we are home together
Daily tasks take up our time.
We don’t appreciate each day
And years just seem to fly.
As a child, you look ahead
At life and all its glory,
Dreams and goals await you
Like a never ending story.
Before you know you’re all grown up,
Adventures in your sights.
Will you travel, get a job,
Protest some cause or rights.
In middle age you have a spouse
And children one or more,
A steady job to pay the bills,
But life is now a bore.
Now you look back on your dreams
And opportunities you’ve missed.
You find most goals you set when young
Still on your bucket list.
Take my advice for what it’s worth,
Don’t waste the time you have.
Realise one dream at least each year,
Don’t take them to your grave.
Now I find myself branching out and experimenting with short fiction, and thoroughly enjoying this, especially flash fiction.
I have been fortunate to have two poems made into songs and recorded. The first "On the Road to Kingdom Come" by Al Wordlaw, and the second, "If I Could Write a Love Poem" by award-winning Israeli/British singer Tally Koren.
My services increasingly in demand as a freelance writer and I have ghost-written the text for a number of children's books and educational tutorials.
It has taken me many years of searching and restlessness to realise that my life's passion is to write. It saddens me that I wasted so many years not devoting to that, but thinking positively, the experiences gained over those years are now wonderful material for my stories and poems.
I want to try to bring a new focus on poetry and try to make it appealing to a new generation of young people and those who thought they never liked or understood it before.
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Awesome. What a great motivator poem. It got me fired up to step into action. Thanks
Okay, this one is it for me. The truth in these words will speak to the souls of the young and old. The young do not realize how fast the years go by and when we make plans to do things later most will never come to pass. We get caught up in the “real world” and we spend most of our life doing what we have to do instead of what we want to do. I know many people as well as myself (remember my poem bitter fruit) who started to feel the tugs of depression when middle age crept on us and we realized half of our life was gone and we still had unfulfilled dreams. I pulled myself out of this (well sort of) when I realized that I can waste the rest of my life worrying about the things I didn’t do, or, start making every moment count. Everyday is a blessing because as long as we wake up there is time to enjoy life and some people no longer have that option anymore, may they rest in peace. Thank you Jodah, for creating a very inspirational poem.
Dana, thank you for that generous and insightful comment. This was in fact hub I wrote last year, but it was languishing as my lowest scoring hub and has been receiving no views so I decided it may be better transferred here. I am glad you found the inspiration in it that I wanted to portray.
Thank you Eric. If you are fired up, look out! I appreciate you reading this.
Hi John,
A lot of wisdom in this one at least for the young. I like your line, “You find most goals you set when young Still on your bucket list.” So often so true. There’s always tomorrow, but then it’s today – and we’re not even promised that. Great job, John!
Thank you, William, for your kind comment confirming my message.
Oh my gosh, John. This is such a much needed and powerful message to many, probably most, people. It is a warning to not let life pass by without realizing our dreams and goals and to do the best we can to hold on to what is good in life. I love your poem, it is so inspiring and well penned. It is great !
I am amazed to read your poem and realize that both you and I wrote a piece based on hope – and we both used the same image. I swear I did not see your poem before I wrote my story, but the similarities are amazing. How delightful !
Firstly, Phyllis, thank you for the wonderfully generous comment. Secondly, what an amazing coincidence! Our two most recent hubs have a very similar message of hope and making the most of life..and surprisingly..have the same feature image!! Something incredible is going on.
Hope and goals are often similar in ways. As a young man, I had many hopes and dreams, some I fulfilled, many I did not. When I look back on my life, I know that there are things I would have changed and forks and bends on my journey, I would not have pursued with the knowledge I have now. But your absolutely correct John. Especially for the young, they should follow their hearts and dreams desires, for life indeed passes very quickly. Don’t wait for the bucket list to come to you, seize it, fill it as much as we can before departing the scene, the stage of life. Leaving knowing that we played a role in this life and gave back to it some of what we took from it. Leave it a better place, leave our imprint in some way, as little as it may be, but leave it! So I agree, don’t let life pass us by, choose a goal and try to fill it with the time we have left here. Stand strong, be hopeful, seek humanity and kindness always. Help others and be selfless, for it will all come back tenfold. Nicely penned John, thank you for setting it free from the Hubs to take flight here.
Thank you for reading and sharing your own journey and insight, Vincent.
Yes, it is incredible, John. Great minds … Or, spiritual connection? Incredible, indeed. I did not see yours till after I posted mine and was blown away!
Great message, John, and beautifully said. You are right, very few of us realize that it is no use waiting to fulfill our dreams, we have opportunities every day to do what we desire. Thank you for posting this poem here. (And now that you inspired me, I am going to get back to my draft and push that publish button on my first poem written in the past two decades. What do I have to loose?)
You have nothing to lose, Emese….just do it So glad I could inspire you with this post. I look forward to reading your poem.