one trick pony

2026-09-19
May you have many such mornings.

2026-09-16
Even an AI robot would come to weariness of such a life of monotony. Yet, this was written before AI became such a big part of the equation of life. It's (wo)man that grows weary of such monotony, and maybe it's the tumbling and rolling that makes it bearable.

This is thought-provoking. I'm provoked to thought. AI is on my mind a lot these days. Is art necessary?

2026-09-16
To quote a friend, "fookin' brilliant."

2026-09-16
This is stunning, frightening, powerful, a writer's poem. Thank you for sharing it.

2026-09-16
This is raw and lonely and painful, and vivid and real. The trunk full of Christmas gifts is so poignant, from the walker's point of view.

This is a powerful poem, very much so.

2026-09-15
I enjoyed this subtle exploration, something very personal was being revealed.

2026-09-15
"Inslumnational Underground," from July, seemed to herald a change in your writing. After that poem you seemed to begin experimenting with more formal verse, rhyme and stanza, and your tone changed. The more familiar voice, bold and honest and forthright became more, I don't know, professorial, less spontaneous, as if reciting from a lectern. It's been interesting following you journey, but I've missed the boldness, the "fuck yous," frankly, the sharpness, the attitude. It felt like you were holding back, biting your tongue, making the form dominant over the natural voice.

The Echo Chamber makes sense. The poems are good, and people are going to recognize that and make compliments, myself included, but I've been waiting and hoping you would bust out of the formalism, and emerge with your bold and honest and unfettered voice, better for the experimentation, but genuine, cutting through the constrictions of meter and stanza.

I know I'm going to regret posting this, I alway do when I attempt to critique. I guess what I'm saying is that I want to hear your voice, rather than being reminded of Milton or Donne.

Make sense? Well, here goes,

jim

2026-09-14
I just want to acknowledge that I read this and found it a stunning self-appraisal, and a remarkable work of writing.

2026-09-14
I agree, this is lovely and peaceful, and I'm grateful to have read it early on this Monday morning.

Yes, everyone needs such a lake. Thank you for sharing your words.

2026-09-11
Love it.

How you expressed love as flowing is beautiful, and the need for reassurance, real. It's a love poem for sure, but the title "belies fragility."

2026-09-10
Little Watch learned some bad habits. Have you tried removing the batteries or letting it wind down?

Thank you for the smile, a nice way to begin this day.

2026-09-06
You write with such honesty and sincerity, you've transported me to the "azure shore."

2026-09-06
cycling thoughts,

"As if reason could be
Tamed to trauma"

the agony of a sleepless night
if it helps, you are not alone.

(and i know it helps very little)

2026-09-05
I like your optimism, I hope it's contagious.

2026-08-27
These are scary, unsettling images—suffocation, unable to free yourself to experience what you so want to experience.

Your words made it very real. Entrapped.

2026-08-19
Makes perfect sense to me. You write the truth.

2026-08-13
i read poems for the same reason
for the life they bring to my life

2026-08-08
It is a good and timely question.

2026-07-29
You have such a gentle, persuasive, way of addressing politics and environmental issues. I admire your ability to write with such subtlety and art.

2026-07-26
i love the rhythm and images of your poem, it feels replete, satisfying, not static, i guess i mean flowing. i kind of want to be there, in the poem, be part of it. The elusiveness of the last lines, the change of tone, feels like what reality really is, impossible to grasp and hold.

I'm not sure any of that makes sense, just my impressions.

2026-07-26
I've been thinking about this poem since you posted it. I always mangle my comments, so I've been hesitant.

I agree with you in principle, craft matters, and the subject deserves the best writing. If only the best writers wrote poems, that would be one thing. The reality is something else, anyone can write a poem, there is no gatekeeper.

I figure you read a lot of poems, and if you find something that's noteworthy, great. If not, you go on. But I know you were saying more than that, and that you were exercising your own craft. I appreciate that. You sensibility was rattled, frustrated, and you had something to say about it. You said it well, your skill and craft made it so.

Forgive my incoherence.

2026-07-25
You had me from the first lines, I was with you all the way.

2026-07-24
Both your poems today are about wealth (and the lack of wealth) and society, and social conscience (or lack of social conscience).

I like the way you are objective, at the same time empathetic toward those whom need help, and are passed by on the street.

We when lose our sense of community, we lose the easy solutions to social problems and well-being. It isn't for lack of caring necessarily, but the vastness of the problems.

As for the wealth divide, it's only going to get worse, it seems. At some point something has to change.

Thank you, these poems are meaningful,
jim

2026-07-24
Such a beautiful poem of gratitude.

2026-07-12
A poem of resolution & resolve. I wish you a peaceful journey going forward, unburdened.

2026-07-12
I love the idea of home as a safe haven, or sanctuary, where you can be yourself (and be yourself with your dog), and relax.

Wonderful poem!

2026-07-10
Enigmatic, but it pulls you in. Very intriguing.

2026-06-30
This is a gut-punch of poem. I felt it, in my chest, in tears welling up.

Amazing.

2026-06-27
I bet Alexander Pope had the same problem.

Kidding aside, this dynamic— the couplets and pewter spoon and the listener, make a compelling, totally unique poem. The last lines were very open-ended, what truth was revealed? That's the writer's secret to keep!

2026-06-26
These three lines filled my thoughts with images, almost like watching a movie, very personal thoughts. I was transported. Amazing what three lines can do.

Thank you.

2026-06-26
As I was reading this, several times as Allen suggested, I kept hearing one word in my thoughts: truth.

2026-06-26
I'm going to print this, keep it close over the next days and absorb it. There is more to it (for me, you instructed the reader to make the poem their own) than I can understand in one or two or three readings.

I'm particularly taken by the third stanza, as the struggle to keep false notions, call it what you will, at bay.

This is a beautiful poem, thank you once again.

2026-06-21
Sensuality is the saving grace of being human.

Beautiful.

2026-06-21
i love this, it's so sweet
and so respectful of your feline friend ~~~

2026-06-19
truth

2026-06-16
Dunbar grew up Dayton, Ohio, which was also the home of Wilbur and Orville Wright. This according to the biography of the Wright brothers by David McCullough, 2015.

"A high school friend of Orville's, Paul Laurence Dunbar, who had been the class poet and the only black student in the school, became a contributor to the West Side News [Orville's newspaper]."

2026-06-14
Your cup runneth over.

2026-06-14
This thaws my heart heart, too—

2026-06-14
Cinematic, creation myth or Phoenix, in the beginning . . . I'm not sure what I mean to say, but I really like this.

2026-06-13
Thank you for transporting me—my world view just got that much larger.

2026-05-28
I'd like to meet this person ~~~

2026-05-27
Fickle nature! We have been lucky (thus far in the year), adequate moisture. By August I suspect we'll be begging for rain.

2026-05-27
You've described Dante's ninth circle of Hell, a world of ice, the frozen lake of Cocytus, God's punishment for living a life of betrayal, though what you describe is a betrayal of opportunity.

I like everything about this poem, and I see truth in it, knowing people who lived through fear and desire for "streets of gold."

2026-05-23
Years ago, on poetbay, there was a villanelle challenge. I don't think I've seen one since. It's a pleasure to read yours.

Brings back memories of night soul woman who owned the site at that time.

And, "One Art."

Thank you.

2026-05-23
Reading this I thought of my own disillusion, at the same time I remember the inner-child.

Then I sighed.

2026-05-23
Once I understood the meaning of a sigil the poem became, again, magical for me (I think you're a magician/musician with words).

2026-05-23
I am a woods walker, but never have I found such a treasure. I enjoyed this very much.

2026-05-22
I find this enigmatic to say the least, but I like the magic it implies.

2026-05-22
I know the road, you caught the magic of it. The power of the Pacific never fails to awe me.

2026-05-22
Your poem is stark and elegant at the same time, haunting and true, a dystopian landscape.