#  Book of Rhymes 

 



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  expand\_more  

 
  

 

### Book of Rhymes 

 

This little book of rhymes, “Things We’ve Thought of Enough,” is a bit different from my other books.

The rhymes (94 in all, including 33 illustrations) are about everyday things, with topics ranging from silly to sentimental, and whimsical to philosophical. If you like limericks, the internal rhyming patterns in the 8-liners have a sort of limericky feel. This page contains 45 of the 94 rhymes.

The wonderful illustrations were drawn by [Maki Naro](http://makinaro.com/).



 [ View on Amazon arrow\_circle\_right ](https://www.amazon.com/dp/1734259604) 

 



    ![book of rhymes cover](/sites/g/files/omnuum12331/files/styles/hwp_1_1__720x720_scale/public/2025-10/rhymes-front-cover.jpg?itok=T4z6WxEN) 

 

 

  

 



 

 

 

##  Selected Rhymes 

 





###    1. The stage is yours  expand\_more  

You spend your life within the seats,  
 staring at the stage.  
You let your fears run through the years  
 and never turn the page.  
But if you dream of taking bows   
 before a crowd that roars,  
Get up, engage, and join the stage,  
 and make the show be yours.

   ![a conductor of an orchestra](/sites/g/files/omnuum12331/files/styles/hwp_1_1__360x360_scale/public/2025-10/stage-1.jpg?itok=gdscdN7L) 

 

 

 



###    2. A tiny blue sphere  expand\_more  

We press on ahead in perpetual youth,  
 with delusions we somehow mature.  
The children grow older, the offspring get bolder  
 and lengthen the crawl on the floor.  
But ever we flinch and return to our crib,  
 carving notches with each passing year.  
In this coming of age, we turn in our cage,  
 all alone on a tiny blue sphere.

 

 



###    3. When to start?  expand\_more  

From yelling “surprise,” to lifting up rocks,  
From rock-paper-scissors, to synchronized clocks,   
It’s a question profound, and I just want to know:  
When do you start – on “3” or on “go”?

   ![two people lifting a rock](/sites/g/files/omnuum12331/files/styles/hwp_1_1__360x360_scale/public/2025-10/lifting_rock.jpg?itok=eKJi287j) 

 

 

 



###    4. Seeing and believing  expand\_more  

It really seems doubtful, so how can it be?   
I’ll believe only when I am able to see.  
Or in view of the way that we often perceive,  
I’ll be able to see only when I believe.

 

 



###    5. Awaiting the pines  expand\_more  

Shipwrecked but ready, they made a new life  
 and planted the seeds of the pines.   
The children would sing as the trees added rings,  
 and sometimes they dreamt of designs.  
As decades receded, the question was when  
 the grandkids would make the decree  
To harvest the trees, and enter the seas  
 in the boat that would set them all free.

   ![people surrounding pine trees](/sites/g/files/omnuum12331/files/styles/hwp_1_1__360x360_scale/public/2025-10/pines-768x859.jpg?itok=35W10dWt) 

 

 

 



###    6. Forgotten memories  expand\_more  

From back in your youth, your friends of all kinds  
Recall you from memories stuck in their minds –  
Some of them pretty and some of them rotten,  
But most of them things that you’ve long since forgotten.

 

 



###    7. Things we've thought of enough  expand\_more  

We stressed over this, we obsessed over that,  
 there were so many troubles in sight.  
We struggled and fought to conquer the thoughts  
 that kept us awake in the night.  
But the years bring us peace as we grow to accept –  
 it’s fine if life’s edges are rough.  
So we raise up our mugs, and sweep ’neath the rugs  
 the things that we’ve thought of enough.

   ![people talking](/sites/g/files/omnuum12331/files/styles/hwp_1_1__360x360_scale/public/2025-10/beneath-768x419.jpg?itok=77nRBYVT) 

 

 

 



###    8. Turning around  expand\_more  

At five years old, she stomped the ground  
And asked, “Why can’t I turn around?”  
“Just do like this…,” we played a mime.  
She said, “No, no, I mean in time.”

Note: The rhythm in this one isn’t so obvious, so here it is with the accented syllables in bold:

At **five** years **old**, she **stomped** the **ground**  
And **asked**, “Why **can’t** I **turn** a**round**?”  
“Just **do** like **this**…,” we **played** a **mime**.  
She **said**, “No, **no**, I **mean** in **time**.”

 

 



###    9. Right or light  expand\_more  

If disagreements drag along,  
Try your best to prove you’re wrong.   
If you can’t, you’re either right,  
Or your best is rather light.

 

 



###    10. Books and graves  expand\_more  

Dead Sea Scrolls and Mayan scripts,  
Pompeii’s rooms and pharaohs’ crypts.  
Across the years, each era waves  
With words and bones in books and graves.

   ![a woman reaching for a book](/sites/g/files/omnuum12331/files/styles/hwp_1_1__360x360_scale/public/2025-10/books_graves-768x797.jpg?itok=YURJ4cc1) 

 

 

 



###    11. Dilution  expand\_more  

When logic is shunned, beware that all claims   
Enjoy equal footing, diluted the same.   
There’s no need for warfare and no need for spies;  
For every one truth, there are millions of lies.

 

 



###    12. The gift  expand\_more  

A child once asked us what world she would find.  
What would we leave her, and would it be kind?  
We gave our reply with a rose in clenched fists –  
Ask not if it’s kind, but if it exists.

   ![a girl receiving a rose](/sites/g/files/omnuum12331/files/styles/hwp_1_1__360x360_scale/public/2025-10/rose-768x793.jpg?itok=WHGTO2RY) 

 

 

 



###    13. The thin thread  expand\_more  

With toes at the edge of our future’s abyss,  
 and heels at the cliff of our past,  
Aligned side by side, a few billion wide,  
 we hope that our footing will last.  
Ever so slowly the ledge in front grows,  
 as it crumbles from under our heels.  
So we shuffle ahead, on present’s thin thread,  
 and dream about wide open fields.

   ![people running on a field](/sites/g/files/omnuum12331/files/styles/hwp_1_1__360x360_scale/public/2025-10/fields-768x1020.jpg?itok=aQM7zYjP) 

 

 

 



###    14. Free will  expand\_more  

When the curtain has dropped and the lights have gone out,  
 and the cast is packed up in a box,  
With their joints made of wood and the notion they could  
 escape, were it not for the locks,  
When the plan is the same, each day after day,  
 with paupers at mercy of kings,   
The semblance of will breeds the movements so still,  
 as the puppets try pulling their strings.

 

 



###    15. Penance  expand\_more  

Picture a world filled with desolate lands,   
Where birds build their nests upon petrified hands,  
And feet send out roots, to pay for the crime,   
As we mimic the trees in a penitent mime.

   ![two men as scarecrows](/sites/g/files/omnuum12331/files/styles/hwp_1_1__360x360_scale/public/2025-10/penance-768x805.jpg?itok=-wnCAt_1) 

 

 

 



###    16. Fire and ice  expand\_more  

Some say fire. Some say ice.  
Some say that either would nicely suffice.  
But maybe it’s neither, and simply the plan   
That we ask how it ends, when it never began.

(Apologies to Robert Frost)

 

 



###    17. Growing up  expand\_more  

How can you tell you’re no longer a kid?  
You stop your bike gently, no need for a skid.   
In hide-and-go-seek games, you want to be found,  
And puddles are things that you now walk around.

   ![a girl jumping on a puddle of water](/sites/g/files/omnuum12331/files/styles/hwp_1_1__360x360_scale/public/2025-10/puddles-768x679.jpg?itok=_ZbLTnAf) 

 

 

 



###    18. Sowing circles  expand\_more  

It’s not always bad if we reap what we sow.   
In lessons we learn, and in learning we grow.   
The real problem comes from the patterns we keep  
And the circles that form when we sow what we reap.

 

 



###    19. Shoeboxes  expand\_more  

Letters and pictures and sympathy notes  
 and pieces of distant old friends  
Follow your life through the joy and the strife  
 in a little box worn on the ends.  
Years down the line, you’ll remove from a shelf  
 the memories long overdue,  
And wonder once more, whose shoeboxes store  
 old pictures and pieces of you.

   ![an old woman on a rocking chair](/sites/g/files/omnuum12331/files/styles/hwp_1_1__360x360_scale/public/2025-10/shoebox-768x846.jpg?itok=9B6MJEl1) 

 

 

 



###    20. Wrong way blame  expand\_more  

It’s common to lash out when losing the game   
And spend your time looking for someone to blame.  
Just don’t be the fool in a plan so cliché  
And get duped by the culprit and look the wrong way.

 

 



###    21. Reflections  expand\_more  

Reflecting long back on her earlier days,  
She saw she had changed, in so many ways.  
It’s always a shock when on careful inspection  
You see someone else in your present reflection.

 

 



###    22. Musical chairs  expand\_more  

We dine through the ages with those we hold dear.  
 At the table, we each play our role.  
The younger ones grow, and the older ones go,  
 and the stories gain ever more soul.  
When the music winds down and it comes time to leave,  
 the elders pass on what was theirs.  
So we sit at our tables and add to the fables  
 while playing our musical chairs.

   ![a group of people playing musical chairs](/sites/g/files/omnuum12331/files/styles/hwp_1_1__360x360_scale/public/2025-10/musical-768x777.jpg?itok=w3kmycVd) 

 

 

 



###    23. Erosion  expand\_more  

When falsehoods keep on pouring down  
And facts are left to slowly drown,  
We’ll never see and never hear  
The truths before they disappear.

 

 



###    24. Reapers at doors  expand\_more  

We’ve long since outgrown all the endings of old.  
 The final one comes from within.  
There’s no need for wars, or reapers at doors,  
 who pale as we beckon them in.   
We sail on through time to mysterious lands,   
 weaving maps on our destiny’s loom.   
With a toast and a cheer and a dime to the seer,  
 we head to our special new doom.

   ![grim reaper at a door](/sites/g/files/omnuum12331/files/styles/hwp_1_1__360x360_scale/public/2025-10/reaper3-479154a4cb38d80b-768x773.jpg?itok=ZZj7oP_r) 

 

 

 



###    25. Artistic beginnings  expand\_more  

The millennia passed as the creatures remained  
 trapped on the walls of the cave.  
Were they drawn to keep score, for religious decor,  
 or reminders on why to be brave?  
Or maybe some lad came to realize there’s more   
 to life than just seeking to eat.  
And thus he did start this pursuit we call art,  
 with a “Hey, guys, this really looks neat!”

   ![caveman pointing to a drawing](/sites/g/files/omnuum12331/files/styles/hwp_1_1__360x360_scale/public/2025-10/cave_art-768x668.jpg?itok=q7kV5gN0) 

 

 

 



###    26. Playing it safe  expand\_more  

His fear he’d mess up and be wrong made him stall.  
He played it too safe and did nothing at all.  
Mission accomplished, but not very bright,  
For likewise he never did anything right.

 

 



###    27. Leapfrog  expand\_more  

That cute little toddler who can’t count to two  
Will grow up and someday know much more than you.  
Generations will always push back the frontiers,  
In slow-motion leapfrog played down through the years.

   ![two people playing leapfrog](/sites/g/files/omnuum12331/files/styles/hwp_1_1__360x360_scale/public/2025-10/leapfrog.jpg?itok=rLnX1FrW) 

 

 

 



###    28. Kings and queens  expand\_more  

Our stories at bedtime bestowed on us keys  
 to wonders and magical doors.  
We lived what was read as we dreamt in our beds  
 and built castles on living room floors.  
But the magic erodes and the mystery fades  
 until everyone seems like a pawn.  
So we lie in our beds and now wonder instead  
 where the kings and the queens have all gone.

   ![a man in bed](/sites/g/files/omnuum12331/files/styles/hwp_1_1__360x360_scale/public/2025-10/bedtime-768x711.jpg?itok=F1UIuLFR) 

 

 

 



###    29. Two out of three  expand\_more  

It’s not so hard to comprehend  
That if we cause the world to end,  
We then won’t have the luxury  
To say, “No, wait – best two of three!”

 

 



###    30. Baggage  expand\_more  

Baggage unchecked has a penchant to spread  
And affect other things that reside in your head.  
Though time often makes the effects disappear,   
The effects of effects are the things you should fear.

 

 



###    31. Fireworks  expand\_more  

At quarter past nine on the Fourth of July,   
 we bolted on home in the night.   
Back in our yard, we knew how to guard   
 that willow-tree image of light.   
Does life mimic art, or does art mimic life?  
 We were too young for thoughts so sublime.   
So we laid out our pillows and gazed at the willows –  
 our fireworks frozen in time.

   ![fireworks](/sites/g/files/omnuum12331/files/styles/hwp_1_1__360x360_scale/public/2025-10/fireworks-721x1024.jpg?itok=UCvNxW7Z) 

 

 

 



###    32. Retrograde  expand\_more  

Your reasoning often is molded to fit   
 whatever you want to conclude.  
Cherry-picked facts and circular tracks  
 are signs that your logic is skewed.  
You twist and you turn as you spiral on down,   
 lost in the depths of delusion,  
Where deep in the hollows your reasoning follows   
 in retrograde from your conclusion.

 

 



###    33. Youth  expand\_more  

He shuffled along, hunched on his cane,   
 over trails that he’d run on so fast.   
He was older than then, but younger than when   
 today would be part of the past.  
Right in between, it’s a relative world,   
 and we choose from the two ways to see.   
So at age ninety-four, he limped all the more,  
 saying, “Youth won’t be wasted on me.”

   ![old man walking on a path](/sites/g/files/omnuum12331/files/styles/hwp_1_1__360x360_scale/public/2025-10/youth-768x997.jpg?itok=mmqBjV_I) 

 

 

 



###    34. The queue  expand\_more  

It’s always the plan when the going gets rough,  
The weak have a tactic that makes them feel tough.  
They look for the bait and find something to click on,  
And queue up a new group of people to pick on.

 

 



###    35. Visions  expand\_more  

The sculptor begins with one cut of the stone.  
The painter’s first stroke hovers all on its own.  
It’s tougher than peering through dense fog or mist,  
An artist can see things that don’t yet exist.

   ![a sculptor looking at a rock](/sites/g/files/omnuum12331/files/styles/hwp_1_1__360x360_scale/public/2025-10/sculptor-768x979.jpg?itok=WVE-yuot) 

 

 

 



###    36. Shackles  expand\_more  

The excuses we make for not reaching a goal,  
The conjured-up forces beyond our control.  
We decry the injustice and seethe at the crime,  
Shackled with straw and boxed in like a mime.

   ![a man wearing shackles](/sites/g/files/omnuum12331/files/styles/hwp_1_1__360x360_scale/public/2025-10/shackles.jpg?itok=mTidF2VD) 

 

 

 



###    37. Sands of time  expand\_more  

Each athlete lives the glory days,  
 atop the highest ground.  
But every peak and record streak  
 is sure to come unwound.   
So seize the day, but have a plan  
 for life without the ball.  
For in your prime, the sands of time  
 begin their steady fall.

 

 



###    38. Taking a knee  expand\_more  

You never know how long you’ll stay  
At lifetime’s stops along the way.  
So when you pause and take a knee,  
Don’t forget to plant a tree.

   ![a woman planting a tree](/sites/g/files/omnuum12331/files/styles/hwp_1_1__360x360_scale/public/2025-10/knee-768x638.jpg?itok=9hr5Jec5) 

 

 

 



###    39. Ends and means  expand\_more  

In the name of 1, we must invoke 2,  
 and 3 then, to even the score.  
It’s clear that the cause supersedes all our laws,  
 it’s preemptive, not paranoid, 4.  
Down through the ages, the counting goes on,  
 the way that it’s always been done,  
As the kings and the queens with their ends and their means  
 forever start over at 1.

 

 



###    40. Birds of thanks  expand\_more  

We can dream about soaring with birds on the wind –  
 a lofty but futile goal.  
But think of the things, which don’t involve wings,  
 that are fully within our control.  
Like besting our nerves, and breaking the ice,  
 and trying to make a crush real.  
So with thanks to the birds, we muster the words  
 to finally say how we feel.

   ![a couple talking with birds flying overhead](/sites/g/files/omnuum12331/files/styles/hwp_1_1__360x360_scale/public/2025-10/birds-702x1024.jpg?itok=WoMdbdsE) 

 

 

 



###    41. Up vs. down  expand\_more  

Hike up a hill, and take any trail,  
You’ll end at the top, with never a fail.  
But if you hike down, and take any way,  
Where you’ll end up – no one can say.

 

 



###    42. Corners of time  expand\_more  

The children all giggle and duck back and forth  
 as they peek around corners with glee.   
But who is to say, this game that they play  
 restricts the dimensions to three.   
A quick look for us reveals things that are there,  
 but they can see things that will be.  
Such is the sound of kids peeking around  
 the corners of time we can’t see.

   ![kids playing in a labyrinth](/sites/g/files/omnuum12331/files/styles/hwp_1_1__360x360_scale/public/2025-10/corners-768x898.jpg?itok=U1LiMMfd) 

 

 

 



###    43. Winter blanket  expand\_more  

Flake by flake, the blanket grows  
 and shrouds each silent day.  
It lingers still, and rests until  
 it’s time to put away.  
We’ll shake it out, and fold it up,  
 and tuck it in a drawer.  
And soon the spring will rise and bring  
 the sounds of earth once more.

   ![a blanket of snow covering the ground](/sites/g/files/omnuum12331/files/styles/hwp_1_1__360x360_scale/public/2025-10/blanket3-8be41d742f80c83a-768x618.jpg?itok=3ijmGnsE) 

 

 

 



###    44. A clean slate  expand\_more  

How can you tell whether something is true?  
Start fresh with the facts and give logic its due.  
Use a clean slate and keep bias at bay;   
Pretend that you were in fact born yesterday.

 

 



###    45. Lifelong friends  expand\_more  

They planted me gently the day you were born,  
 together we’ve grown through the years.   
When winds came on strong, you asked me what’s wrong  
 each fall when I shed all my tears.   
And now we’re both old, wrinkled, and worn,  
 and leaning a bit to the side.   
I hope that you know, I’ve enjoyed each day so,  
 even though I have never replied.

   ![a woman standing next to a tree](/sites/g/files/omnuum12331/files/styles/hwp_1_1__360x360_scale/public/2025-10/tree-768x835.jpg?itok=TVaezak7) 

 

 

 



 

 

 

 

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