I think I was in the 5th grade. There was an assignment in Japanese class. We all had to write a poem. I wrote a poem all by myself for the first time.

I was very proud it but what the teacher said crushed me. She said, “That’s not a poem.”

I took what the teacher said to my heart and decided that I was not good at composition. I buried the treasure of writing skill.

Since then, every time I have to write something, letter, resume, anything, it was painful and I was never satisfied and ashamed of every writing. Words were scary to me. I can offend people with my words without me intending so. Words were like monsters out of control.

About ten years ago, God showed me that I buried my talent of writing. He showed me when that happened. I was able to denounce it and not have fear around words and writing and speaking.

Since then little by little, I started enjoying sharing what I thought. I realize words can be encouraging, inspiring. Words can make people laugh and bring people comfort, open their eyes to new ideas and truth.

I am not scared of words. I am not scared of making mistake with words. Writing in my second language like this is a testament of that.

The Bible talks about a servant burring his talent in the ground. He said he was scared of the master. He must have felt the pressure of having to produce something out of nothing. I do identify with his feeling, but feeling like that is not based on the fact. God the master is not to be feared that way. He knows what we can do and what we cannot do. He knows we will make mistakes and OK about it. He does smile on our imperfect poems. He wants us to use our talent and enjoy doing it.

So I want to attempt recreating the poem rejected by my teacher. I want to dig it out of the ground. It went something like this.

Train of tomorrow

You can almost see
The train of tomorrow
Your earnest desire to be
On the train of tomorrow

You sleep of a hope to be in
The train of tomorrow in the morning

It eludes me once again
Everyday that I gain

Yes, instead of catching
The train of tomorrow,
I have attained the day
That is called today.

Today becomes yesterday
So goes on my memories

Chasing the train of tomorrow
Will give me opportunity for today
And treasures of yesterdays.

I usually have someone check my English but I will share just like this in the hope of being seeing many many mistakes.