PostPoems Be Artistic. Be Creative. Be Inspired!

In my late teens and early: In my late teens and early twenties, I developed a fascination with how a Poet's work developed over time, and how each poem altered the poetic landscape, and was then altered itself by the presence of the next poem.  During college, I spent far too many pleasant hours reading literary criticism and analysis, instead of the stuff I was assigned to do.  But I always felt like I was a day late and a dollar short because the Poets whose work I studied were all deceased.  I was unable to see the living process.  I had no idea, in those days, that the Lord had a great joy prepared in store for me for the right time---at this final stage of my earthly existence---that I can now see it operating in real time, in living color, and in the common environment of this site, as I observe your work, proceeding poem by poem unto the grandeur of the majestic perspective that it now demonstrates and will ultimately expand to its final, glorious, and enduring form.  Your poems have given me that privilege, and have validated all those hours I spent at the college library, so that I now know those hours were not spent in vain.

Like the  Apostle Paul, your: Like the Apostle Paul, your unbreakable faith invites us to never give up, to transcend, to conquer.   This timeless and resolute prayer is an incredibly liberating and rejuvenating illustration of Romans 8:28. It can make all the difference to someone who, like me, feels buffeted by trials and just needs a reminder.    Thank you for using your poetic gift to be a beacon in the tempest.   Angelically beautiful refreshment.

It's now on YouTube: I read this one at:  https://youtube.com/shorts/yHj57k8bUho

First, please accept my: First, please accept my sincere gratitude for the mention in the notes.  You know how much I admire your Poetry, and the importance it has for this site and those who part of the community.  In the four years that I have been following your Poetry, you have given me the great experience of seeing a real, vital, and formidable Poet expanding a work in progress into a complete collection.  I studied this at college---but only among the dead Poets.  I never dared hope to see it happen, in real time and living color, from a contemporary Poet, but you have privileged me to be able to watch happen right in my line of sight. The short lines with which you have formatted this poem give an impression of verbal agility, a choreography of concepts and images that only a Poet of your quality can compose and present.  The poem's center of gravity is in the stanza "Something ending, / Something just beginning"  to which, in the final two lines, you attach the simile of sunrise.  The beauty of the Cosmos is that is is always in process, something ending (when certain stars extinguish the last of their fusable atoms) and something beginning (star arising from the coalescence of atoms in great quantities until gravity is achieved, then leading to ignition).  You are a Cosmic Poet, and you bring to your readers not only a knowledge of these processes, but a reminder that our skies are not static, but are filled with all sorts of processes. You orchestrate the movement of the cosmic processes by describing them in present tense verbs, or verbs that are suffixed "-ing."  This strategy, coupled with the very short lines, bring a limber and athletic agility to the poem, and to the content it presents. Whenever you post a poem here, the posting is an event to be celebrated.  In a paradoxical way, each poem that you post is an expansion of your work, but also serves as a further introduction to your complete collection.  In my reading experience, I have only encountered two other Poets who present that same paradox:  Wallace Stevens and Vergil.  This poem proves that you have walked where they walked; not as a visitor, but as a fellow inhabitant of those rarefied and glorious dimensions.  The observations you bring back from there to present in your poems make all of our lives better.

Are you worthless?: Are you worthless? Compared to who? If someone told you you're worthless than Jeff Bezos or Elon Musk, they would be absolutely right. Both of them are worth more. A lot more. A whole lot more. You get the picture.  If you feel bad about feeling worthless, visit a local homeless shelter. You're worth more than the unfortunate people who are there, right? If that doesn't help you get out the funk you're in, try to think of other parts of your life that don't dwell on how much you're worth. For example, you may be more fun than a barrel of monkeys. Hope you feel better soon.  

Thank you for reading and: Thank you for reading and commenting upon the poem, and for the tea recipe.  I am sorry for my delayed reply, I have been quite ill this week. I agree with you that the future we should have had among the distant moons of our solar systems seems to be beyond our reach as a civilization and a species.