| SO BE IT
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2025-07-01
Allen, you write of expectation and experience, the common factor being mood. Your poem reminds of a short story by Hagiwara Sakutarō called, “Cat Town," written in 1935.
In the story a man, representing everyman, goes out for a stroll, only to find himself disoriented. Though he has walked this way countless times before he finds himself somewhere where he has never been, and never knew existed, which seems to me to be very much what your poem is about, at least in part. In your poem you seem content to be in “today,” which is “as good as it might be,” even if it is somehow, in some “convoluted way” not where you expected to be.
In the short story, well, I won’t reveal the ending just in case you want to read it.
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| SO BE IT
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2025-06-29
Your epigram could have been words from Huck to Jim
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| I Matter
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2025-06-29
The three poems you posted (so far) are so . . . spot on, not a wasted word, no excess.
I concur with every word of this poem.
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| Crowning
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2025-06-29
Thank you for this concise, damning, indictment. I love the way this flows down the page—the unfolding of our new and horrific reality.
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| PoetBay People: Anna (night soul woman)
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2025-05-21
I still miss her.
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| The Ninth
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2025-05-15
I find this quietly powerful, speaking the truth.
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| 12am hospital round
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2025-05-01
TV and movies dramatize your profession. This sounds like the true reality of it. It's work.
Thank you for this, and for your work.
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| Gevalia (II)
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2025-04-12
I can't stop reading and rereading this, bookmarked.
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| A PLACE OF TRIAGE
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2025-03-26
You expressed, so very well, the most fundamental emotions/thoughts: hope and doubt.
"That light, will be everything . . . " and what follows, is a beautiful notion. I love this poem.
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| Body Valency
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2025-03-23
What a wonderful metaphor! So apt, so . . . you!
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| The Moon Spoke to Her
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2025-03-05
As i have a fondness for the moon, and being considered crazy and stare-worthy, I love this poem. You expressed something very real
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| WHOSE WILL BE DONE?
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2025-03-05
It is the child that fulfills the parents’ final wish, as it should be. The texture and color of your words make this vivid, very nearly tangible, and genuinely poignant.
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| Weather in love
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2025-02-18
i hear you singing this song
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| [fifty-cent vocab]
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2024-09-30
Your current [series] is fun to read, and an exploration I'm thinking.
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| A follow up on ‘Worthy’
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2024-09-28
Thank you for the update and the very good news. So often we hear about the struggle, but not the result.
I repeat what I said to "Worthy," best of luck going forward. Though, I wonder if "luck" has anything to do with it. Perhaps perseverance is a word that better suits you!
Wishing you the very best,
otp/jim
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| Salmon Tanka
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2024-09-28
I enjoyed all three of you tankas, lovely images gently portrayed.
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| rue the hay
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2024-09-28
This has a hypnotic, melodious quality, the more you read it the more entrancing it becomes.
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| Now Isn't a Good Time, Cat
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2024-09-22
i love this, the second stanza just . . . sings ~~~
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| MY LIFE BY ANN WOOD
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2024-09-17
You write this as if you are figment of your own imagination . . .
an inner-dialog, dark, but ultimately hopeful . . . a mystery
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| GRAPEFUL EXISTENCE
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2024-09-11
One wonders if it is a symbiotic relationship with mankind. The vines existence depends on producing, then sacrificing, its progeny.
Wonderful poem, I had visions of vineyards and hillsides. Lovely.
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| Mon petit champ de broccoli
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2024-09-08
What a sweet memory
and an equally sweet poem!
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| For My Children
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2024-08-29
Thank you for this.
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| Soma
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2024-08-23
i often feel the lack of coordination
between mind and keyboard
the words seem to come
of their own volition
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| Awake
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2024-08-20
Your affinity for early hours, and more so those who populate the early hours, reminds me (how these connections are made, I don't know) of Robinson Jeffer's affinity for his rocky coastline.
Intimacy is the connection.
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| Happiness, Maybe
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2024-08-20
I am so grateful for this poem, this introduction to R. C. I can't imagine how I missed him, but I did. After reading some of his poems I have that feeling one gets when a connection is made.
I had to look up, Requiescat, not an unusual occurrence with your poems, in a good way.
"Happiness, Maybe" says so much.
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| Yoga
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2024-08-09
Gold would be icing on the cake!
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| HOME TO JANIS JOPLIN
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2024-08-05
blows me away~~~
you're the best
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| Nocturne
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2024-08-05
i love this, and it brings to mind one of my favorite poems by the late Nancy Willard: "Hindsight". it's probably copyrighted, so i can't post it here, but it's on google if you're curious.
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| The one that is you
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2024-08-01
you may not *need* to say it
but it never goes unappreciated!
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| Lesson 7
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2024-07-30
death was the invitation to the ball that ED longed for
be patient, you will get yours ~~~
You are writing stratospherically my friend.
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| Lesson 8
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2024-07-30
Could it be that behind the —smoke in your eyes — stare/dare/glare
you are a sensitive and gentle and insightful poet-man?
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| Memento Mori
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2024-07-29
Sameen got it right. Not only a journey, but a path to follow.
This is why I continue to come to poetbay.
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| Chanson d'automne
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2024-07-29
Such poignancy, it's almost unbearable.
Thank you for this one.
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| Waste Time
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2024-07-29
the best things happen when you have the luxury of free/idle/waste time.
or, as boz scaggs sang, "my time."
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| Lesson 6
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2024-07-26
Sameen, it strikes that poetry has become so modern, such a vehicle for self-express or opinion or grievance, and rhyme and meter is used so seldomly, that it may go unnoticed. What you're doing in Lesson 6 is subtly woven into the narrative, it's easy to miss. I missed it the first read through.
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| Lesson 5
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2024-07-26
Astute, original, smacks of truth and self-awareness, beautifully written.
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| Passing
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2024-07-25
I enjoy your quiet, reflective words.
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| Lesson 4
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2024-07-24
Your writing seems to be taking to (climbing, in your words) new heights, progressing exponentially. This is fine, meaningful, relatable, compelling to read. Thoughtful, patient writing.
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| Lesson 3
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2024-07-23
The last line took me by surprise, a complete change in tone, a little pent-up rage let loose.
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| Sea
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2024-07-23
predictably, i love the imagery and flavors, the salt sea and delta
and the meandering, a sensory delight ~
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| Lesson 2
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2024-07-22
There is some resolution here, between Lesson 1 and Lesson 2, an understanding of the moment—the value and appreciation of it.
I like what you've done with your stanzas.
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| Things Fall Apart
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2024-07-21
it makes me want to cry, reading this. the inevitability of it.
You write of this so clearly, almost without emotion. The emotion comes later, to the reader. to me.
I'm not sure that makes sense.
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| Lesson 1
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2024-07-21
the man is back!
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| Sunday
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2024-07-21
words, like reading tea leaves ~~~
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| A day before it sets.
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2024-07-21
Let us know how it goes!
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| Holding Up
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2024-07-21
My thoughts exactly.
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| Soap Bubbles
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2024-07-19
This is poem that seems to come straight from the heart!
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| Is Dalliance a Fling?
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2024-07-10
sometimes a fling is enough, so i've heard~
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| Knewton
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2024-07-09
your writing is cinematic
composed
and all yours (one of a kind)
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| Ember
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2024-07-06
ah, the past IS present!
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