Children Are Our Future Poem by Edmund Davis Quinn

This is dedicated to Whitney Houston and to all the amazing youth poets.
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Children are our future, teach them well,
teach them to love words,
teach them to love poetry.

Teach them to respect themselves,
to love the words they create,
to play with them,
savor them,
learn them.

Teach them to read,
anything, everything.

Teach them to listen,
to grow, develop, come more then they can believe.

Teach them to love themselves,
love their gifts,
their foibles,
their humanity.

Teach them to perform,
create, be brave, be amazing.

Words are play,
words are fun.

Reading is play, reading is fun, it's alive, it's active.

Words want to be read, played with, performed, discovered.

Give a man a fish and he will eat,
give a man a book he will read,
let a man believe in himself, in what he can create, and you will be amazed.

Children are our future,
teach them well,
teach them to love... themselves.
to appreciate.. themselves.

To be brave,
to get on stage,
to perform,
to beam,
to be amazing.

We are all amazing,
we are all beautiful,
if we just express our natural selves,
if we don't hide behind the walls of society,
if we come out.

You can be amazing,
you can create, you can learn, at your own pace, doing what you love.

Work is part of life, and it's not always easy, not always blissful.

But our personal time, is time to create, to be amazed, to listen, to perform, to laugh, to cry, to be ourselves.

Take risks, challenge yourself, be more then you think you can be.

Your future is limitless, this does not mean easy, this does not mean perfect.

There is always time to develop and be more,
trust yourself.

We are all our harshest critics, be your own best fan too.

And show your love for your words on stage, in print, on blogs, whatever medium you love.

Share the love, share the knowledge, share the wonder.

And appreciate the wisdom of getting better, seeing mistakes, experience, and always be developing.

One thing I have learned in my 30s is to just be the geek I am, not the person others think I will be. I wish I knew where that was leading, I think I always will.

Whereever you go there, you are. Love it for what it is, and be the change you want to see in the world.

See cliches aren't that bad.

If you can't be with the one you love, love the one your with, even if that's just you.

Learning to love yourself is not easy, it sounds easy but it's not, but it is one of the greatest joys in life.

Love yourself, create, read, love your journey, and let yourself be loved.

I wished Whitney could, and we all can pray for someone that we knew personally like that.

Show your love, show your respect, show courage, show your feelings.

And make the world a better place.