Hi, Jessica and congratulations on your recent award.

This is an excellent piece reliant on the extended personification/metaphor of the sea glass representing of course a person who has been tried in the great maelstrom of life and come through softened and improved, all jagged edges removed.

The fact that I can relate this to my own life serves to illustrate its truth.

Steve 23-Apr-2024

I haven't had much "could have beens" so when I met my wife, I proposed right off! One small concern: second stanza, last line. Should that be "dreamt" rather than dream"? 16-Apr-2024

-Nice image and presentation, Steve.
-You wrote a good minute poem with a good topic.
-I like how you italicize each concluding line for emphasis.
-A good first verse shows his uncertainty about approaching her.
-Maybe his hopes were brighter when they were at the party.
-But it doesn't seem like it was meant to be.
-I like the image "dusty scenes."
-A good entry; good luck!! 16-Apr-2024

I haven't had much "could have beens" so when I met my wife, I proposed right off! One small concern: second stanza, last line. Should that be "dreamt" rather than dream"? 16-Apr-2024

We live in a wonderful world of what-ifs and lost opportunities. Have you ever wished that you could hit the rewind switch and been able to relive or change one tiny moment of life and how things might have been so different? God's plan, I guess.
Nice little poem to get the brain thinking this morning.
Smiles, Carol 16-Apr-2024

Nicely constructed Minute Poem which follows to the letter the rhyme and meter conditions laid down.

As someone who rode horses a lo growing up, I can tell you it's not always a lot of fun, especially in the wind and rain which you claim is a great idea!

But yes, the horse is often seen as an emblem of freedom and strength, so your poem sounds great.

Steve 16-Apr-2024

Erotic 5-7-5 Don't see many of those.
Clever use of internal rhyme in each of the three lines is an added feature here.

Good luck in the contest.

Steve 16-Apr-2024

Well the thought alone is worth a Sixer and I suspect I could easily give you a few years. The fact that my Golden Wedding Anniversary is only a few months away may give a clue. And just like you, i am certainly not done with enjoying life yet, although I may not be able to emulate the elan of the lady in the pic!

On top of that there is a joyous spring about your verse which simply rattles along to it's 'stop the clock' conclusion.

great stuff!

Steve 16-Apr-2024

Hi, Bobby Jo - nice to meet you.

I really don't want to stir things up or antagonise anyone but you do say:Call me superstitious, a conspiracy theorist, or a Bible freak.
and that's exactly what I am about to do.

I am happy for you to find solace in your belief in God, although it is a bit of a worry that your God has a 'chosen people.' Is that fair to the rest of us?

Apparently yours is a Christian God, not one of the hundreds of other Gods worshipped around the world and certainly not a Muslim God since you pray for the people of Israel (mostly secure under the protection of their own powerful military as well as the backup of superpower USA) but not the people of Gaza who currently face famine and further miltary action from the neighbour you pray for.

Let's get to the eclipses, shall we. You seem to think they are a sign, although your evidence is flimsy. Your discussion doesn't start well when you go on about 'the first eclipse' and 'this eclipse.' Why does this worry me? Because eclipses have been happening for as long as the earth, the moon and the sun have been carrying out their little dance and that is many millions of years, despite what the Bible may tell you. Eclipses, often multiple eclipses, happen somewhere around the world every single year, total eclipses not quite so often, but look at this list...

Total solar eclipse of 2026. ...
Total solar eclipse of 2027. ...
Total solar eclipse of 2028. ...
Total solar eclipse of 2030. ...
Hybrid total-annular solar eclipse of 2031. ...
Total solar eclipse of 2033. ...
Total solar eclipse of 2034.

That's six total eclipses in ten years - not unusual, just what happens with monotonous regularity in any ten year period. So why do you somehow consider these last two eclipses as special enough to be considered a 'sign' from some imaginary being? I know, it's because they happened in America. In fact your whole piece is very America-centric, but let's not go down that little rabbit-hole.

You want real proof that your whole shtick about eclipses is just crazy. here is what you say::
'What better way to get us to look up, than throw a Solar Eclipse on us?'

Throw?! Really?! You think God suddenly decided to send this astronomical event at us? Astronomers and scientists have known this latest eclipse was coming for over 200 years. That's nearly as long as your nation has been in existence. And yep, they know about the other six solar eclipses coming in the next ten years too. In fact humans have been predicting eclipses for thousands of years, not always accurately in ancient times, but as you will have witnessed with the latest one down to the exact minute.

So no, god didn't look down, see his creations were behaving badly and pull an eclipse out of his bag of tricks.

One more little rant. Next you seem to connect various other bad things that happen to the so-called sign. Human error causes a huge ship to drift off course and bring down a bridge; an electrical fault causes the lights to go out during a concert where students happen to be singing your National anthem, an anthem based on a poem written by the man the bridge was named after. woo-hoo, that's enough to get any conspiracy theorist champing at the bit.

Not so for the vast majority of rational people in the world, I'm afraid. Once again your nationalism manages to convince you that what happens in America is somehow more significant tnan disasters that happen with infinitely more serious consequences than in other parts of the world...

Enough said. I really do have a lot of love and concern for people of the Christian faith. many of them do amazingly good works, helping people in their communities and venturing on missions around the world to provide help for struggling people. They are Christians who take the words of Jesus to heart and strive to do good in his name. I'm afraid I have much less respect for those who see the hand of a vengeful God in natural events and unforeseen disasters.

Sorry - long review, but you did give us a long post. have a wonderful day.

Steve
16-Apr-2024

nice cinquain with a strong message about loving yourself before you go looking for love in others. My experience is that this is very true. Someone with low self-esteem is always going to be a risky proposition in a romantic relationship.

Steve 15-Apr-2024