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Manet Paints "Berthe Morisot With a Bouquet of Violets" Chaperoned by Mother but fidgety I tried to gaze back with calm as he pointed to a seat. A girlish giggle squirmed up in me like a spring about to burst to the surface. My eyes felt large and that’s how Manet captured them--as big dark, adoring...

I nominate Ken's "Poem for a Mad Son" and Frank's "Rosebud" poems.

I echo what Frank has said....nice poem

1/Bob Bradshaw 2/bobbybradshw@yahoo.com 3/the poem is my original 4/and unpublished work 5/and I don't have a poem committed to represent another board in the current IBPC. Quasimodo Taunts are hurled like stones by boys and drunks. I duck many because I'm stone deaf--from ringing bells. People thin...

MIchael, thanks...I have put back the original version of those stanzas.
Kenneth -- thanks for the nom...appreciated

Yes, congratulations. You have worked hard... good to see you rewarded.

This is so filled with compassion. Gorgeous. A sure winner at the IBPC, though it deserves much better. We're privileged that you display your stunning wares before us.... You set the table beautifully... You sit cross legged like a yogi in my papasan chair.sroking your beard between sips of tea, an...

LOL.... that’s a great line

I was thinking to put a “be” before glad... good either way

Splinter In Your Palm I am the splinter you carry secretly in your palm, a charm you stroke as if for good luck. I am the two margueritas at the end of the day, but also the blackmail a click away. I am the silence at the end of a phone call, my presence like a perfume your wife can almost sniff thr...

This works well... it’s hard not thinking of Ken’s poem, but regardless it makes its way in much the same manner, with as much crow-ness imaginable, leading naturally to the final, effective stanza....

Nitpick: last line should have a “be” in it

Bees or any of my poems from March are fine... I am not representing anywhere else. email: bobbybradshw@yahoo.com Bees I first worked in the nursery, tenderly stroking my sibling larvae. My next job was to dispose of rubbish, family slumped on the hive's floor. O my dead sisters... "Hurry," I was in...

Michael and Frank, please let me know if V3 works better than V2, etc. Best, Bob

I nominate capricorn’s “ Trysting with Morpheus”, Frank’s “Hospital” and Ken’s “Butterfly Effect”

Frank, I appreciate your insights and suggestions...I have incorporated some of them. Let me know your thoughts....

Thx, Michael... it will be available for the short list for May...
I like your belfry line....
but now I need to go check the March poems

Frank, I have shortened "Quasimodo". I think your instincts were right, that it needed to be given a generous trim. Let me know your thoughts....others too. Best

I am never offended by suggestions. But many suggestions from well meaning readers often don’t improve the poem... so I ignore them. But as Michael and Bernie would attest, I often revise my poems, sometimes substantially, based on constructive criticism. So feel free to suggest.

Like the colloquial feel of this.. I like the fathers simply reading their papers, but I was looking for something stronger than “that was the end of that”. Maybe they could be reading the day’s headlines of........... the headlines providing the punchline

Thx, Frank...I would love to trim, if it would help. Suggestions?

Thanks, Ken

V5: Quasimodo Taunts are hurled like stones by boys and drunks. I duck many because I'm stone deaf--from ringing bells. People think that I'm dumb when I don't respond, but I have always known where to find peace. The cathedral. Its walls of stone. There the world's confusion calms, as inevitably as...

Thanks, Michael

While I like the unusual subject, and the poem overall, there are too many details for me to grasp and process at one time....I'm like a one armed juggler with more balls being thrown at me too quickly. Maybe that's my limitation....if it helps, think of Judy's poem about wire cutting....

Dorothy and William I. There was only darkness to sit with her. The moon too had turned her back on Dorothy. William was off to see Mary Hutchinson, to propose. William, her beloved, her darling had sworn nothing would change between them after the wedding, all three of them living together. How cou...