Underneath The Imagination Tree Poem by Jim Yerman

A father loved to take his children and sit under what he called their imagination tree.
There he would ask: if you could imagine yourself as something else what would that something else be?

Once their dreaming was ignited and their imaginations were set free…
their father loved to listen to what his children were imagining…underneath their imagination tree.

I imagine I'm a cricket in the night…with no music to accompany me...I'd sing a-cappella
and anytime it starts to rain….I'll use a mushroom as my umbrella.

I would love to climb a rainbow, …as you can see I am quite small.
I'd love to know what it feels like…to go down the biggest slide of all.

I want to ride upon a cloud…across the world I'd sweep…
and anytime when I got tired…I'd have a comfortable place to sleep.

I want to be a leaf on a tree…if I could be anything at all
I want to sway with my leaf friends on a windy day…and change my colors in the Fall.

I'd love to ride on the back of a pelican…I can imagine how much fun that would be…
I'd drag my hands along the water as we glide across the sea.

The father always smiled as he listened…as his children's imaginations flew
for wherever their imaginings took them…they would take him too.

One day the children asked the father…as they sat underneath the tree…
"Father, if you could imagine yourself as something else what would that something else be? "

The father looked at his children…and smiled
as they sat together under their tree…
"You may find this hard to believe, " he said,
"but I imagine I am happiest being who I am.
in a place I never imagined I would be".