PostPoems Be Artistic. Be Creative. Be Inspired!

I applaud your attitude,: I applaud your attitude, which is an example to us all.  However, that word "had" is past tense.  And you, and your posted poems, are very much in the present tense.  And the many poems you have ahead of you are still in the future tense.  

Because you are an: Because you are an irreplaceable pillar of this site, your sincere and powerfully moving expression is an example for all of us follow: and that example is to make things right. You are certainly part of what makes this platform more than a landing place for poems, but a community.   And the links were an enjoyable bonus.   God bless you, peaceful poet.   

I second everything the pro,: I second everything the pro, Starward, said and tip my hat to you as well. You show us how it's done with lines like these:   "In a world of too much and Never enough No void unfilled No concrete undefiled"   Throughout this swift and disarmingly candid expression, you turn raw emotion into a captivating, free-spirited, drumming rhythm suggesting a heart on fire. There's an elegance about what it means to be human. And your finale . . . wow, who could do better than: "I miss you sanity/ Lost sometimes" to summarize how we all feel about our own chaos within.   A spectacular introspection.

I am glad you kept that: I am glad you kept that Crucifix, and I applaud your attendance at Saint Philips!  And thank you for your service in the Army. I have another Crucifix, which I keep on the table by the chair to which my condition confines me, which, at each of the four ends of the two beams, has small glass enclosure which contain items from the Holy Land:  gravel, flower petals, incense, and myrhh.  While the latter three are of recent gathering, as all plants must be, the gravel may have been there at the time Jesus was living there; it may have even been on one of the paths He trod.  The Crucifix also has a sunburst behind the Savior's image's head---a symbol that has fascinated me since I acquired my first Crucifix at the age of five years old. Thank you for telling me those aspects about yourself, and I hope to be able to hear future good news about your illness---that is my prayer.

I am very glad for your: I am very glad for your presence on Postpoems; and, although we have not had much interaction or communication, I applaud this testimony you have posted, and I am very thankful for that final paragraph, "Let's continue to be here . . ." which describes and summarizes one of the chiefest aspects of Postpoems, of which I am so thankful to be a member, and to be a member among such fine, fine Poets and human beings.  Our individual differences are like the themes and variations within a Sonata, but our great similarity---being Human---is the Sonata that makes those themes and variations possible.  Like Pop Stevens said in one of his greatest poems, "Being there together is enough."

If I were wearing a hat right: If I were wearing a hat right now, I would remove it in your presence, most excellent Poet, Ssmoothie.  In this poem, you achieve a height of greatness and grandeur that, I fear, makes my poor words awkwardly inadequate in this attempt to describe and respond to your huge accomplishment.  In this short, but very powerful, poem, you have described, encapsulated, and summarized the human condition; not just what it is, but what it feels like.      Although I happen to believe that we are the only sentient inhabitants of the Universe . . . if I did believe in aliens, this poem of yours would be a perfect test with which to introduce those aliens to the human condition.    Just as. with Patriciajj's poems, it is useful to find a center of gravity in the poem, I think this poem's center is located in the lines In a world of too much / never enough . . .  This is not only the poem's centerpiece, it is also a great epitaph for the human race, if we end up destroying ourselves, or our planet.  It is also the epitaph of every great civilization that has fallen through its own foibles---as far back as Sumeria.  The great Poet, T. S. Eliot. whom I deeply admire, needed 434 lines in The Waste Land to address a similar issue; but you have addressed it fully and completely on one page.     If I were teaching a class on Poetry, this poem would definitely be on the syllabus.  It is the kind of poem I wish I had read decades ago, when I was first learning about Poetry---as it would have answered certain questions of mine earlier than they were actually answered in my experience.  I hope many young Poets who are just starting out will see this poem:  it will speak deeply to their own emotional cores, and it will also provide a viable model of how to do that.     I offer you my utmost compliment for your magnificent accomplishment in this poem.