Slow Dance
Have you ever watched kids
On a merry-go-round?
Or listened to the rain
Slapping on the ground?
Ever followed a butterfly’s erratic flight?
Or gazed at the sun into the fading night?
You better slow down.
Don’t dance so fast.
Time is short.
The music won’t last.
Do you run through each day
On the fly?
When you ask How are you?
Do you hear the reply?
When the day is done
Do you lie in bed
With the next hundred chores
Running through your head?
You’d better slow down
Don’t dance so fast.
Time is short.
The music won’t last.
Ever told your child,
We’ll do it tomorrow?
And in your haste,
Not see his sorrow?
Ever lost touch,
Let a good friendship die
Cause you never had time
To call and say, “Hi”.
You’d better slow down,
Don’t dance so fast.
Time is short.
The music won’t last.
When you run so fast to get somewhere
You miss half the fun of getting there.
When you worry and hurry through the day,
It is like an unopened gift ...
Thrown away.
Life is not a race.
Do take it slower
Hear the music
Before the song is over.
On a side note, this poem was originally started in 1997 and it is still making its rounds today. When I received it I knew it was a hoax, but the message in the poem is very powerful so there is good that can come from it. There is no terminally ill little girl that wrote this poem and asked that it reach as many people as possible as her dying wish. See: Urban Legends .
Created: April 6, 2003
Nancy L. Spoolman