jim

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
You bring a refreshing breath of life to poetbay, a musicality and frankness which I appreciate.

jim

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

2026-01-18
My circle is very small. It is so heartening to know you have such a support group. I understand the value of it, and hope someday to find such a group.

Beautifully written and expressed, as always!

jim

2026-01-16
Hi Ann, and happy birthday! Wishing you the very best!

jim

2026-01-11
Hearing those words as a child may explain, in part, why poetry and poetic thoughts resonate so deeply with you.

2026-01-09
I'm having a hard time putting into words what this poem means to me. So I won't keep trying. Suffice to say it has burrowed its way into my psyche. I'm not sure what I feel, yet, beyond the power of the words and imagines. There is despair and hope. There is the weight of woes which lie upon us, "us" in the greater sense of the world, and the hope which wants to emerge despite all.

I'm sorry Allen, if this comment makes no sense,
jim

2026-01-08
"this existence defies logic"

I find this irrefutably true. I appreciate your poem.

2026-01-05
Beauty is subjective. The mirror tells the tale, and if there is no mirror who's to know?

This one is for the pig!

2026-01-02
A companionable dog can brings such joy! Wishing you a happy new year!

jim

2025-12-31
A sweet tale! Intoxicating!

Best wishes for the new year!
jim

2025-12-07
This is true to the essence of what it means to be human—beautiful sentiment, beautifully written, Isabelle.

The song is so simple and so profound.

2025-12-01
Begin the day in positive anticipation—it says a lot about you as a human-being, positivity doesn't come to everyone.

A great analogy, Allen.

2025-12-01
Would not the unkindest punishment be to be forever amid the throng?

I have an uneasy feeling after reading this. It went visceral.

jim