I really enjoyed reading this and got a good kick of the notations
s in the poem on themes. Bouncy and enjoyable, inviting as a literary dance, as the poetic melody beams.
07-Sep-2022

Well done Mike, a great poem. Articulate with great imagery, the free verse, is deeply moving with superb language, and a greatly appreciated work of art. The towers stood again in us all. Let's hope the like of this day, will never been seen again. Well done my friend. Grace to you, Mike, blessings, Roy 12-Sep-2019

This is well written and jam packed with all kinds of information some pertinent and some not :). The section on the zealous preaching of certain 'born again' was particularly interesting to me and I have to agree with you - it really can be expanded beyond that group as ALL religious groups have their fair share of individuals who do God more harm than good with their judgmental and short-sighted thinking. Well done and thank you very much for sharing it. 23-Aug-2019

I always keep that in mind when I am purchasing. But I feel the bigger problem for them is the government, wars and terrorism they are subjected to. A well written poem that makes a point for all of us to consider. 27-Jul-2019

There was a hardscrabble world out there when I was young...playgrounds didn't have soft spongy landing pads and oh-so-safe plastic doo-dads that were no match for the metal slide that left burns in the hot summer sun, or the welded together jungle-gym 99% of us fell from the top of without any mention of a concussion protocol... The Tilt-a-whirl defied astronaut training exercises and if you spun off and onto the pebbled dirt, well--pick yourself up young lad or lassie and climb back on! We were not taught entitlement back then...we made do with what we had and loved it...AND (get this!) we SPOKE to one another without hand held phones--and eschewed anything indoors for the love of a good banana seat bicycle--maybe with playing cards clothes-pinned to the spokes to give it that "authentic" motorcycle sound. I watch parents hover over their soft self absorbed children now and wonder not why...but why NOT--these
little darlings who all get a trophy for "participating" complain when they don't enter the workforce at md-management level or higher...because after all, they HAVE A DEGREE! I wouldn't trade my childhood for all the I-Phones in China...


Karenina 26-Jul-2019

Good job on this, Mike. It flows well and the strong verbs carry it very well. I liked this stanza in particular:

"
Or to her horror with her girlfriend's womanhood inquiry
they thought an 11 year old OB/GYN was totally absurd.
It made for an walk home with her interesting to me...
"Mike, your butting in is not appreciated, so don't
do that again. Leave the woman talk to us."

Brilliant. Bob 26-Jul-2019

Good job on this, Mike. It flows well and the strong verbs carry it very well. I liked this stanza in particular:

"
Or to her horror with her girlfriend's womanhood inquiry
they thought an 11 year old OB/GYN was totally absurd.
It made for an walk home with her interesting to me...
"Mike, your butting in is not appreciated, so don't
do that again. Leave the woman talk to us."

Brilliant. Bob 26-Jul-2019

a wonderful reminiscence in verse. my experiences were similar to yours, we didn't have knee or elbow pads---we had scabs. great write, Mike...............meeshu 15-Oct-2018

Considering I have been called racist over a thousand times, and Hitler a lot of others, I wasn't sure what I would make of this. I don't think the dictators are over there, and the decadent is over here, but if you remember the movie Cabaret, there was a decadence just before Hitler's rise to power and I feel that was to keep most people occupied.

The same thing at that time is happening here, are the people being accused are the problem, or those that are doing the accusing. I kind of had Charlottesville figured out and had three days of bad dealings with Antifa.

I laid low and figured it out and some people were orchestrating things behind the scenes. Just a simple cut and paste message, "So and so isn't going to like when I show up to chat with them." Things ended very quick.

I think the key is, especially with people not afraid to put it out there is to be no one else's fool or let them take advantage of you or the sentiments you express. This poem is well written and contains a lot of heart. 04-Mar-2018

That last line, is very true for me in Baltimore and we are only talking about walking to work. Don't really want to make history or the news that way. Well written and interesting poem with plenty to consider. I find it wise not to forget the prophets. 11-Feb-2018