Phyllis J. Rhodes

2018-04-14
This is heartbreakingly beautiful. I cannot think of a more profound and honest explanation of what mothers go through when a child is an addict. The writing is beyond brilliant. It is alive and exploding. No reader can avoid the back blast of the combustion.

2018-01-15
Thank you so much. I don't know who made this comment but I appreciate it very much.

2018-01-15
LFD3 What a beautiful picture you paint and thank you for your comment. My dead dreams only make it to the streams before they drown.

2018-01-14
This makes me want to crawl into a dark place and cry and plead to God to make the nightmare end. As your sister, I feel the pain of helplessness. I can't make it better. But I pray that God will bring you out of this roiling, boiling cauldron Satan has concocted to destroy you as you pray that your loved one will not be destroyed by the Evil One's recipe for destruction.

2018-01-14
This makes me want to crawl into a dark place and cry and plead to God to make the nightmare end. As your sister, I feel the pain of helplessness. I can't make it better. But I pray that God will bring you out of this roiling, boiling cauldron Satan has concocted to destroy you as you pray that your loved one will not be destroyed by the Evil One's recipe for destruction.

2018-01-14
Honest and heart wrenching. The anguish digs deep into the soul. Sadly beautiful.

2017-08-20
I am sitting on a veranda watching clouds; white and wisby, above popcorn clouds with dark underbellies as I read this enchanting work. I see a story of your life-the joys and sorrows. I see God's hand on you and you and He conversing through the clouds. I feel your understanding of some of the why's of life and ultimate joy which triumphs over all, as you are freed to become a child again just as God promised. I could write much more about your good news that the dark clouds that become cleansing rain and how that rain comes from the love of people who have been through hard times and are given a gift of understanding and compassion. We will talk about all the particulars soon. This is bursting with brilliance and wisdom.

2016-12-03
Great piece. Good questions. Thought provoking. I love the writers quoted here. One more important read on this is the biggest seller of all time, The Bible. Get into Daniel or Revelations. Whether a believer or not, there are a lot of things there that will at least make you wonder.

2016-11-17
What can you say about perfection? It is perfect. Perfection inspires awe, and I am in awe.

2016-11-17
The Spirit flows like the River in every line. Power and Peace are in this poem and in this River. God speaks through your poetry. You have been gifted by Him to reach people who might never consider He even exists.

2016-11-17
This should be featured as an editor's choice for excellence and beauty in poetry. I find it remarkable. James Joyce would praise it. Carl Sandberg would love it. Robert Frost would envy it. It has beauty in every line. Amazing!

2016-11-17
Sadly beautiful. This shows that heart wounds leave scars forever that can reopen in vulnerable times. But this is also a story of hope, and its source, a Savior who has the power to transform and transcend the wounds. Because I know Suzanne, I can say you've written a novel in these few lines, and lost nothing of the importance of the story. This is a treasure.

2016-10-24
This is an award winner. Somehow this must reach a wider audience. I am not demeaning poetbay or its writiers in any way. I love this place. But this so perfectly states what happens here I wish the world of poets who post on line could read this.

2016-10-24
This is pure beauty! Godly inspired, no question!

2016-10-24
Oh my, Aesop would be jealous. Those scurrying through the cheese holes spy through the key holes to see if the rodent community is properly trapped. The mouse did a service with that mirror reminding the rat in case he has forgotten, that in these stacked institutions, the resident's world can become very small, eventually occupied by no one but themselves. Being trapped it is nearly impossible not to succumb to the closing of ones mind to the immediate situation particularly when they cannot change it. Ah, but the mind can also be freed when the body is trapped and can no longer call attention to itself. When that happens creativity is loosed and this smart, wildly inspiring piece is a grand example.

2016-10-24
What an inspiring joy! What a discovery! He and his art, old and beautiful. What is more beautiful than an old poet. This is a tender, sweet story told bit by bit that hooked me and reeled me in. Artists are in deed "creation sustainors". And their creations, like this poem, sustain them.

2016-10-03
This is an example of poetry by a true artist. It contains music, pictures, form, and everything that touches the senses. Words on a page, or screen in this case, opens the eyes and mind of the reader to a story that couldn't have been better told be it by paint, film or sculpture. It is all there to read and feel. Exquisite.

2016-09-26
Oh yes, the monster who steals innocence ambushes from its cowardly created cave of darkness and death. It breeds other monsters there and sends them forth to stealthily steal any semblance of joy or happiness that one might find amid the ugliness that invades lives. This prose is more powerful than readers can imagine, though most have monsters of their own.
In reading it I rode the emotional roller coaster that has lengthened with the years as more monsters have left tragedy and death in their wake. There is so much I could say on this. But here I will just say Excellent Write!

2016-09-15
This is how to tell a serious and dramatic story comically. You get absolutely everything out of it with the rhythm and rhyme and scenery and emotion and whimsy and entertainment and story. Yes, I see the story. It ends in glory. Few may get it but it twas you who writ it and you know the scene behind the scene and what the outrageous lines mean. A bit of Shakespeare here mixed with The Dude trying not to be rude, just wanting his rug, the one he dug; that magic carpet had been the one back when he just dropped in to see what condition his condition was in.
This deserves a PRIZE YOU EDITORIAL GUYS (and gals)

2016-09-04
The agony of loving a child who is on the edge of being too far from your reach is hell on earth in terms of loving someone. Addiction is Satan's nectar. Only God's is sweeter. And you have that to offer your son. He has to choose. Love hurts but it also heals, and all who love him and you cry out in prayer he will turn to it. God, please, no more lost to that evil. Please no more..

2016-08-25
a beautiful work of art. You are a word painter.

2016-08-24
I gained new insight into what makes a poet and what is poetry. This is lovely. The flow beautifully demonstrates the words written.

2016-08-23
Get music to this and it will be a hit!! Dag nab it, just do it!

2016-08-23
Such a profound lessen that I too learned. You expressed this brilliantly. How many young people dismiss their values to impress others who will in the future mean nothing to them. You took the blows, you took the heat and in the end you won! No crying, no blaming, no giving up. Great lesson here.

2016-08-23
A great commentary on an issue I've never seen written about. There is so much sense in this yet you present it in a whimsical way that can't help but leave a smile along with gratitude.

2016-08-23
LOVE IT!! Oh my goodness, you have these pests down perfectly. I had so many encounters with them throughout my childhood and I know you've told their story well.

2016-08-23
This spins around in my head as I connect each word and line. Where is it going I think at the beginning. By the end I am in so deep I need to take a deep breath and check my beliefs. Quite moving.

2016-08-23
It must be a night for storms, nature and its power. I read this shortly after writing The Conquering Rain. This is a beautiful piece and I soaked every stanza in. How I love storms, the beach and ocean and the effect they have on me. You've given me that feeling with your wonderfully crafted words.

2016-08-23
This is so valid particularly in today's society and politics.

2016-07-28
This is as beautiful as those mountains and the creations that came from them.

2016-07-28
Reading this is like watching such an incredible movie that you can't get up and leave when it ends. You just sit and let the impact of it have its way.

2016-07-28
A truth beautifully explained.

2016-07-28
This shows how people whose brains lean to the artistic side need someone who favors boundaries and anchors to keep them from being out of control. But I think those "someones" need artistic people with them so that they can actually experience life as it happens and in all its beauty, adventure, and even ugliness. Else they would live as human robots. I really enjoyed and connected with this work.

2016-07-28
I cannot pass this up without comment. It is another example of your gift as an artist. The structure, the words, the message all come together in truth.

2016-07-26
A novel could not tell this story as beautifully.

2016-07-26
Depression seems a to be a requirement for artists. You really hit the nail on the head when you talked about adolescence. What a shock to an innocent. I agree with your conclusion. Looking to others to make you happy is one disappointment after another. You have discovered you are responsible for your own happiness. That makes me happy.

2016-07-26
Few words, perfectly made point.

2016-07-24
This is the poet I know. Incredibly talented and gracious.

2016-07-24
My heart skipped a beat as I read the last line. True poetry. Beauty in lines and words.

2016-07-24
If I could transport sound, you would hear my enthusiastic applause and bravos!!
Love this!

2016-07-24
A mural of madness and loss. Wonderfully written.

2016-07-24
What a lovely vacation I had as I read this love letter to creation!

2016-07-24
Beautifully sad and victorious. In this painful way the weak can be made strong. But they can also be destroyed.

2016-07-07
Thanks for remembering. So glad you enjoyed it.

2015-07-16
Damon, the heading above the title says not an oxymoron referring to a question, "How can grief be good?" Good grief is a phrase we often use like "For goodness sake!" Or, OMG. The line Sad relief, for a stunned heart's wandering refers to the process of grieving. Loss of a loved one or something very important is often stunning; numbing the heart that is lost and trying to find sense in what feels senseless. When the grieving process sets in it is the beginning of relief from the overpowering sadness one feels. I am not surprised you didn't get it. I doubt many did. Hope my explanation makes sense.

2015-07-15
Some of you get it. I do believe that without a belief in God it will become very difficult at some point to find a reason to live. We must live for more than ourselves because even the most narcissistic will eventually deplete themselves.

2015-02-01
I find your style absolutely fascinating. Once begun there is no leaving the intimate, water color canvas of words that draws one nearer and nearer to examine the strokes by a gifted hand. Like the masterpieces, each word or stroke is essential but there is never one too many.

2015-01-30
Oh I love this goat!! Entertaining and inspiring!

2015-01-30
Discovering the beauty of this work while working through it fulfilled me!

2015-01-30
reading and wondering
seeing and smiling
thinking and feeling
This is poetry!