jim

2026-04-19
I can testify to the truth of this. It is insidious, and in my mind, just plain weird, because ultimately the goal seems to be turn education into propaganda, stifle thinking, creativity, cognition, create replicants.

Melinda, you have a gift for clearly stating the truth.

2026-04-19
I don't know the video, or what the rape academy is, but I do understand this poem—predatory men to be feared.

It has changed the way I, as a man, am perceived as I walk down the street, live my life. I am suspect.

2026-04-11
"I stand ashore, lingering" The poet as observer.

Great use of raging sea metaphor—it works so well.

2026-04-11
Beautifully expressed, you captured the . . . thrill . . . of writing poetry.

2026-04-10
You have a way of using description in such a unique way. Every poem is an exploration in ideas and words and perspective utterly your own.

2026-04-09
Douglas shows a true appreciation for one of life's simple pleasure.

Sweet poem!

2026-04-07
What blows me away is that NO ONE is his party will stand up to him. You wrote about this a few days ago in "Compliance."

It's shameful, but the opposition to the man is growing everyday, his reign will end in failure, at what cost, though?

2026-03-31
Uniquely Sameen, as always, these melding of minds. More than clever, admirable.

2026-03-31
So insightful, brilliant & true, generous thoughts, humble, understanding . . .

2026-03-29
Yesterday we (my wife and I) joined a small crowd in a small town to stand up for what we believe. What you do bi-weekly is inspirational.

2026-03-28
Mother, son, language, love—not necessarily in that order, that's how I read this poem—which ends ominously.

I see love, an easy kind of familial love. Acceptance.

2026-03-23
Every culture writes their own creation story, you are a culture unto yourself, writing this beautiful story of beginning, of creation, of love.

It may be a "bit of fancy," but it's a lovely bit of fancy which touched me.

2026-03-19
Made me laugh, too ~~~~

2026-03-18
I'm beginning to realize, in my own life, surviving is greatness in itself.

This is such a good poem, I can't stop rereading it, imagining the scenes and emotions.

2026-03-15
I second William and shells' comments. It's always special to see your name, read one of your poems.

Your photo is sweet.

2026-03-13
I smiled when I saw your name. Welcome home ~~~

2026-03-11
Oh no, now I'm seeing the same image!

2026-03-11
With age comes continual self-assessing. These new pains, inevitable, are always disconcerting. Blessed relief when it dissipates. If it dissipates!

You end on a positive note—optimism has its own healing effect.

2026-03-11
It's sweet. It's lovely. I'm a better person for having read it. Uplifted.

2026-03-11
You have a gift for finding new ways, refreshing ways, for framing and writing your poems. I very much enjoyed and appreciated this.

I've never heard a nightingale.

2026-03-08
I spend a great deal of time at my pond, it is a place of reflection, just as your poem expresses so well.

2026-03-04
"when we find the gold
The feeling is so intensified
The reward gilding our souls"

For me those moments are rare and memorable. Having said that, there are such moments everyday, but you have to look for them, they don't always present themselves.

I appreciate this poem, Allen. It's a lesson to be aware, to look for unexpected "eureka!" moments.

2026-03-04
Your day sounds very, very pleasant. I hope you have a sunny March. The breathing and yoga will help, just in case the sky turns cloudy : )

2026-03-02
These are powerful words, Melinda, impossible to ignore (yet are ignored), and echo (reinforce) the Emma Lazarus' poem, "Acceptance," that the editors posted yesterday.

It's beginning to feel (or maybe it has always been so), that the world is an unkind place.

2026-02-28
Being part of a community, this community, means so much—it is like a family, some close, some distant, each a part of the whole.

Every poem a voice. A gift.

2026-02-27
Martha and I are currently catless. It leaves a void in my day, which for so long began as you describe so well in this poem.

The question you pose, and the comparison, is one ask myself as well. I appreciate this, and all your poems for asking the important questions and giving guidance with your words.

2026-02-27
I love: "silky sunny horns like the trumpets of jazzmen,"

I looked online for images of Carolina jessamine. I now understand the second stanza of your poem—poem of appreciation.

2026-02-25
The winter months, the long nights and brief days, suit me. Even so, the melancholy of which you write so well, comes, and winter becomes almost unendurable, and sunlight precious.

2026-02-15
Your poems are like a "gentle zephy," they always resonate with me. Thank you for sharing

jim

2026-02-07
Here we go! This triggered a memory of my father and I flying a kite in a park—something I had forgotten, or at least hadn't thought of in a long, long time. I wonder at the sheer quantity of forgotten memories, and what fun to have one brought forth, such as this kite-flying day.

2026-02-07
Each stanza feels like a separate exploration of a vast world, silence being, in a way, infinite. I really enjoyed and appreciated this poem.

2026-02-03
Looking back . . . bittersweet memories, but remembering being a kid and playing is the sweetest of all—that is what your poem does for me, awaken the kid in me.

Thank you, this rings true for me.
jim

2026-02-03
Sweet!

2026-02-02
Fascinating! You have a style of writing so unique, all your own. A joy to read.

2026-02-02
You write so well, so easily it seems. This is great, though it is a tough subject—lack of sleep.

I wish you sweet dreams tonight.

2026-01-29
A rainbow of a poem—water and light—appreciative and beautiful thoughts.

2026-01-26
I think "bear it" says is all, says it perfectly.

2026-01-26
This is touching and lovely and true, and so gently written.

It's so nice to see your poems again,
jim

2026-01-24
This is exactly why I keep coming back and back and back to poetbay.

Just a wonderful, lovely, sweet, somber, welcoming poem, Ray.

2026-01-24
You ask good questions, Alan. I have the same questions, we all do, what comes next? Perhaps, a seance is wanted?! Are dreams a glimpse of what's to come/ It is chilling, you expressed it just as it is. This has me thinking of futuristic thoughts. Thank you!

jim

2026-01-23
How can a poem be so vivid and so ethereal? And, entrancing? And readable? And tell such a tale?

I don't know, but you do.

jim

2026-01-23
Chrisie, this feels so real, so true and heartfelt, so many touching lines. This rings true with me:

"while my own nights
turned into echo chambers."

~

You ask, "who finds the finder
when no one’s looking?"

Maybe we do, your readers.

jim

2026-01-23
You write the undeniable truth.

2026-01-22
I love the starkness, the reality, the matter-of-fact, almost noir tone—the unadorned truth.

Yet, the emotion is there, and I felt it.

2026-01-22
Love endures and grows, that is my experience Infatuation, perhaps that is what fades bit by bit. That, also, has been my experience.

Vivid, but cryptic! What was the gift . . .

2026-01-22
We're expecting the same storm in the midwest, and I'm feeling the same anxiety, though I've lived through a lifetime of these storms—and here I am.

Once more into the breach.

2026-01-22
Beautifully written, elegantly written. I appreciate the language and the sentiment very much.

Bookmarked (which means I'm saving it to read again, and think about again).

jim

2026-01-18
Could a poem be more original!? It is transportive, the images lively and vivid. I don't know if it get it or not, but I certainly enjoyed reading it.

jim

2026-01-18
This reminds me of a friend from my teen years who waxed rhapsodic about the sensuousness of holding hands with his girlfriend. I think he thought as you, another sense, more than the sum of its parts, a "language only fingers can understand."

Vivid images, the taut sheets, the stillness. You make it real.

jim

2026-01-18
I love the variations on a theme of these Hilma poems, subtle and intriguing changes, compelling images (nectar in the knees!).

Very pleasing to read and contemplate.

jim