Here is the second poem by Carol Reffold; pretty good stuff!
Have you seen the twelve steps programme?
It’s there for all to see.
It helps you make a better life,
and really sets you free
to be the person you can be
to live ‘authentic’ life
and if you breathe it in to you
it keeps you out of strife.
If you work the twelve steps programme
before it’s part of you,
it trains your whole self how to live
the way we all should do.
You can ‘fake it ‘til you make it’.
You’ll start to see a change.
Your mind-set has a major shift,
your life will re-arrange.
When you live the twelve steps programme
you’ll come to realise,
that all the ‘stuff’ you let stop you
was only in your eyes!
And as your life turns slowly round
and gets back on the track
the skills you’ve learned, what you’ve breathed in
will stop you going back.
So then you share twelve steps of life
and help to show the way
to others who have lost the plot
and help them find their way.
And if you think I’m talking rot
just look around this room.
The people you admire the most
are ‘up’ – not doom and gloom!
They’ve stable lives, successful too,
although I feel success
is being glad in everything,
the good times, and the mess.
Tom O’Toole, the baker bloke
who opened Beechworth Bakery
was one such bloke who walked twelve steps
a better life to make
and now, foundations firm in place,
he lives the twelve steps rule
a valued man in Beechworth town
now that is Tom O’Toole.
(C) Carol Reffold February 2012