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</o:shapelayout></xml><![endif]--></head><body lang=EN-US link="#0563C1" vlink="#954F72" style='word-wrap:break-word'><div class=WordSection1><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:12.0pt'><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:black'>Marcia<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal>The Blessings of Blindness<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>Well crafted with a light touch of irony and humor. I have also written a couple of pieces on this theme, but I am not sure where the market is for this sort of piece. Perhaps one of the disability magazines or even our own Magnets and Ladders since it isn’t a how to article but more a reflections piece. I have no suggestions for changes you should make.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:12.0pt'><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:black'><br>Cleora<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoPlainText>Dusty's Christmas Wish<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoPlainText>How did you get the soot out of his feathers? Santa is magical, but even he got soot all over his clothing in the original poem, except for his snowy white beard, Hmm. I guess cockateels are small enough not to brush the sides of the chimney and of course they don’t wear stockings. Santa claws and Santa Paws take care of cats and dogs, but maybe Santa daws handles pet birds Christmas treats.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:12.0pt'><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:black'><br>Leonard<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:12.0pt'><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:black'>Where Did That Word Go?<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:12.0pt'><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:black'>Curious if you had a reason for ending your poem with rhyming couplets when the rest of the poem was not rhymed.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:12.0pt'><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:black'>I appreciated your gentle humor. I think we can all sympathize when something simply refuses to appear from our mental filing system. For me, it is likely to be a particular doctor’s name or dates of great grandchildren’s births.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:12.0pt'><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:black'><br>Sally<br></span>TAMSIN’S PRAYER<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:12.0pt'>Your word choices were excellent and the meter and rhymes followed the pattern of the original poem very well. The poem is also poignant in that I remember that Tamsin spent a time as a shelter resident before you adopted her near the beginning of our great time of isolation due to the pandemic. No suggestions for changes, it was perfect. <span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:black'><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:black'> <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>DeAnna Quietwater Noriega<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>Cell: 573-544-3511<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>Email: <a href="mailto:dqnoriega@gmail.com"><span style='color:#0563C1'>dqnoriega@gmail.com</span></a><o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>Author of <i>Fifty Years of Walking with Friends<o:p></o:p></i></p><p class=MsoNormal><i>https://www.dldbooks.com/dqnoriega/</i><o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p></div></body></html>