Life Doesn’t Frighten Me

by Maya Angelou

Shadows on the wall

Noises down the hall Life doesn’t frighten me at all Bad dogs barking loud Big ghosts in a cloud

Life doesn’t frighten me at all. Mean old Mother Goose Lions on the loose They don’t frighten me at all

Dragons breathing flame On my counterpane That doesn’t frighten me at all. I go boo

Make them shoo

I make fun

Way they run

I won’t cry So they fly

I just smile

They go wild Life doesn’t frighten me at all. Tough guys fight

All alone at night Life doesn’t frighten me at all.

Panthers in the park Strangers in the dark

No, they don’t frighten me at all. That new classroom where 

Boys pull my hair 

(Kissy little girls 

With their hair in curls) They don’t frighten me at all. Don’t show me frogs and snakes And listen for my scream,

If I’m afraid at all It’s only in my dreams.

I’ve got a magic charm

That I keep in my sleeve,

I can walk the ocean floor And never have to breathe.

Life doesn’t frighten me at all

Not at all

Not at all.

Life doesn’t frighten me at all.

My Heart’s in the Highlands,

my heart is not here

by Robert Burns

My heart’s in the Highlands, my heart is not here;

My heart’s in the Highlands a-chasing the deer; Chasing the wild deer, and following the roe,

My heart’s in the Highlands wherever I go.

Farewell to the Highlands, farewell to the North,

The birthplace of valor, the country of worth; Wherever I wander, wherever I rove, The hills of the Highlands forever I love.

Farewell to the mountains, high covered with snow;

Farewell to the straths and green valleys below; Farewell to the forests and wild-hanging woods; Farewell to the torrents and loud-pouring floods.

My heart’s in the Highlands, my heart is not here;

My heart’s in the Highlands a-chasing the deer; Chasing the wild deer, and following the roe, My heart’s in the Highlands, wherever I go.

Hold Fast Your Dreams

by Louise Driscoll  

Hold fast your dreams!

Within your heart

Keep one, still, secret spot

Where dreams may go,

And sheltered so,

May thrive and grow— Where doubt and fear are not.

O, keep a place apart, Within your heart, For little dreams to go!

Think still of lovely things that are not true.

Let wish and magic work at will in you.

Be sometimes blind to sorrow.  Make believe! Forget the calm that lies In disillusioned eyes.

Though we all know that we must die,

Yet you and I May walk like gods and be Even now at home in immortality!

We see so many ugly things— Deceits and wrongs and quarrelings;

We know, alas! we know

How quickly fade

The color in the west,

The bloom upon the flower, The bloom upon the breast

And youth’s blind hour.

Yet, keep within your heart

A place apart Where little dreams may go, May thrive and grow.

Hold fast—hold fast your dreams!

Sick

by Shel Silverstein

 "I cannot go to school today,"
Said little Peggy Ann McKay,
"I have the measles and the mumps,
A gash, a rash, and purple bumps.
My mouth is wet, my throat is dry,
I'm going blind in my right eye.
My tonsils are as big as rocks,
I've counted sixteen chicken pox
And there's one more--that's seventeen,
And don't you think my face looks green?
My leg is cut, my eyes are blue--
It might be instamatic flu.
I cough and sneeze and gasp and choke,
I'm sure that my left leg is broke--
My hip hurts when I move my chin,
My belly button's caving in,
My back is wrenched, my ankle's sprained,
My 'pendix pains each time it rains.
My nose is cold, my toes are numb,
I have a sliver in my thumb.
My neck is stiff, my voice is weak,
I hardly whisper when I speak.
My tongue is filling up my mouth,
I think my hair is falling out.
My elbow's bent, my spine ain't straight,
My temperature is one-o-eight.
My brain is shrunk, I cannot hear,
There is a hole inside my ear.
I have a hangnail, and my heart is--what?
What's that? What's that you say?
You say today is---Saturday? G'bye, I'm going out to play!"