[Critique Group 2] poetry submission for May 16 session

[Alice Massa]

Hello!Group 2 writer friends!

At this eleventh hour on May 9, I am sending you a poem for the May 16 
critique session.Please forgive my being so late as I had to most 
unexpectedly return to Indiana for a funeral and just arrived back home 
in Milwaukee this evening

number of poetic lines: 34

number of words:259

*To the Poem, Lying in State at the Rhyming Rotunda*

**

*by Alice Jane-Marie Massa*

**

**

*About a delicate, innocent, little poem of mine,*

*someone quite creatively knowledgeable*

*and widely and wildly well-published*

*said in passing at her presentation:*

*"I like her poem, by the way;*

*but I don't know if it is finished."*

**

*"Finished."Finished?*

*Is that poem lying in state in the Rhyming Rotunda?*

*Is the poem draped in the flag*

*of the Pickled Poets' Society?*

*Are there Grammar Guards standing watch?*

*Are there Punctuation Patrols ready to present the Colors?*

*No?No.No!*

*Then, I assure you the poem is not finished.*

*It is just at a stage in its poetic life*

*when it can appear on a poetic platform.*

**

*Dear Little Poem of mine,*

*At any time, each of your little words is not safe;*

*some will be unceremoniously plucked away from you.*

*Some of your longer lines*

*may be limited or lifted right off your page.*

*Some of your seemingly once vivacious verses*

*may fall victim to the poet's carving knife.*

*Some of your stanzas may not stand the temporary test of time.*

*Even your precious title may be revised*

*when re-read with later eyes.*

*Your sweet, but weak little comma*

*may soon be replaced with that stronger semicolon.*

*Watch out! That exclamation point*

*of which you are so fond*

*may promptly be deleted!*

**

*Dear Critic, I assure you,*

*the poem will never be completed!*

*As long as you now understand, I will not stress:*

*Poetry is now and forever more a work-in-progress.*

**

** * **

(end of poetry submission)


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