Learning to live
Is learning to give
Peice of your heart
To those you had been apart
Looking into your past
Without using the thing you did last
Walking away from the old
Without growing cold
You learn to live for today
Without running away

4-26-08
Jillian Craven
I wrote this poem while living in a domestic violence rehab. I was learning a lot about my life, and changing my life, while still staying true to myself.  I have always had a history of running from my problems or ignoring  them. So today, when life gets tough, I go to this poem as a reminder that life has it's up's and downs, but you can't let it get to you.
 
You may think corners,
Are where walls meet,
In your home,
Or place you would stand,
When you are in trouble.
I think of corners,
As a part of your life.
As we get older,
We turn more corners,
Some at odd and tricky angles,
Never knowing what's on the other side.

-Jillian Craven 1994
I wrote this poem when I was in the 7th grade, attending Paducah Middle School, in Paducah, KY. My teacher, Mrs.Clark entered my poem in to a state wide contest amoungst the KY Teachers Associations. This poem won fisrt place.
This poem still has a lot of meaning to me, and even as young as I was when I wrote this, I feel as if I wrote beyond my years  at the tender age of 12.