If I Had A Wish

If I had a wish
I'd wish for more,

More sunshine in the mornin'
More clouds in afternoon
More autumn leaves a' fallin'
beneath the starry moon
More happy smilin' faces
that show that love abounds.
More love for other races
More hope
More friends around
I want a world more grateful
for family and for foe.
I want a world worth sharing
with everyone I know.

If I had a wish
I'd wish for less

Less anger in a neighbor
Less sadness on a face
Less hatred for another
Less pride in human race
Less sorrow
Less sufferin'
Less bitterness and greed
I want a world less hungry
with little mouth to feed.
I want a world worth savin'
to sow for future seed.

And though this wish
may not come true, I ask,
Have I really cared?
Have I given to another,
This life I was asked to share?
Help me open up my heart
To make this wish come true.
For if I had I wish to wish
I'd wish it all for you.

copy write Karie Porterfield 2008

As I was going through files and throwing stuff out, I came across this poem I had written in December of 1991. If you remember, 1991 was the year of the Rodney King beating. We were living in Long Beach near Cal State Long Beach at the time. The Long Beach school district is one of the So Cal districts that buses kids from inner city to the good part of town. Where we lived was considered the good part of town, I laugh about that now. As much as I loved living there, we never consider our neighborhood a good part of town. At that time it was safe enough for the kids to play in front of our house as long as a grown up was watching. Only the 3 older girls were in school at the time and almost all of their friends rode the bus from inner Long Beach. Because of that, we were very aware of how hard life in inner Long Beach could be. At our elementary school, Tincher, English was the 5th major language spoken. If I remember right, Cambodian was 1st, then Mandarin, I don't remember what 3rd and 4th were. Like most schools, our school participated in the Reflections program. I have a friend who is an amazing artiste and always encouraged her girls to participate in Reflections. I loved hearing about their projects and how into they got, so I decided I would encourage my girls to really get into it that year. They all loved telling story's or writing poems so I thought that would be what I would encourage them to do. Our school invited parents to participate and so I decided if I was going to encourage my girls to participate I should also. One morning as I was going about my normal stuff I thought about the theme for the year, "If I had a wish. . " The events of the time defiantly influenced my train of thought. In a very short time I had this poem written. I never turn it in, it seemed too personal to enter in a contest. Instead I dedicated it to my kids and shared it at our annual family Christmas poetry reading.