Poems inspired by Joyce Carol Oates' Where are You Going, Where Have you Been

			Arnold Friend A friend indeed Who teaches you About yourself Forces you to see Parts of you You cannot accept Yet Ask for Pieces of yourself You do not know You have Wants to share With you But only if You give first You don't want To give But your friend Arnold Encourages you to.	He Put His Mark On Her And She Had No Real Chance Of Escape She was The victim Long before She ever Could have Realized The danger That was About To fall On her The same mark May be upon Us. We need to erase The mark now Before It harms us In the same way or In and even Worse way If we can come together And hold tightly be able to keep his Mark from taking shape And overcoming our world After All He Almost Did Fall Right? We Can Keep Him Down. Wait.	The loud music drifts in Inside the house she waits Waits for the nightmare's end An end to all the fear Fear comes despite the noise Noise from the house, her haven She was safe inside her house Until she chose to leave Her innocence was lost Not lost, stolen from her Although she was the one Who left the house that day The loud music drifts out Outside the house she sees Sees her girlhood vanish.

Poems inspired by Charolette Bronte's Jane Eyre

			Grace Charity Balance The truth was in The laughter Was it yours? Who's was it? You knew the truth Is that why you laughed? Crazy But is one who Knows Truth Crazy? Not all there But balanced. The ghost wanders Makes himself seen A visitor from another place Warning of the future.	Reason and Emotion Ever conflicting Ever present Ever abundant ------- Reason What is right What is sane What is fact ------- Emotion What feels right What is illogical What makes sense -------- Emotion and Reason Heart and Mind Soul and Body Love??

Poems inspired by Toni Morrison's The Bluest Eye

				Whiteness in the dolls in the dress in the dreams All Women want the dolls want the dress want the dreams What are the dolls is the dress are the dreams Something white But white Is not always The best color And so the dolls so the dress so the dreams Are torn And ripped apart By the Children Who do not understand.	This space intentionally left blank!	Seeds don't grow In infertile soil Nobody can make them Later, as time passes On, the seeds die, as if in a Vacant lot, left unattended Even though they tried Giving them water Observing them daily And keeping them fed Little could be done to help Sacrificial flower Healing will take time And though the pain is great Take care, hang on Tomorrow will be better Eventually something will bloom Reality will catch up to you, your Eyes may become blue but your Dreams will never change.