Chris, it is lovely! I'm glad to know someone else who reads e.e.cummings!

Don: here's a hint: around the parentheses is the topic word, within the parenthesis is a discription.

1st verse:
"l- (a leaf falls) -oneliness"

I leaf you the fun of deciphering the second :-)

I hope and pray
You do not think
That rhyming comes with ease
Nor words roll off the tongue intact
Like leaves from off the trees.
Sometimes one has to sit and think
When ne'er a thought arises
When suddenly the light comes on
And brings with it surprises.
So if you have the gift of rhyme
It's always good to share
It might not ever make you rich
Or take you anywhere.
So now this ditty soon will end
And I can hardly wait
To see if there is more besides
I've nothing more to state.

That was tons of fun to read; I'll bet it was even more fun to write! Weeeee-eeee!

Getting fat!! getting fat?!
From reading all of that???
Tis not flawed invention that we need
Tis creativity
Of words with great flare
concepts that lay bare
juxapositions we must swear
That motivates us to share
our lives spent, used up and declare
among those who are unaware....

Beware!
Creativity is catching
finding words scratching
and finally matching...
words and concepts galore.
For some, it is a bore
and others...adore.....

A poem made famous by John Wayne:

America, Why I Love Her
Written by John Mitchum

You ask me why I love her? Well, give me time, and I'll explain...
Have you seen a Kansas sunset or an Arizona rain?
Have you drifted on a bayou down Louisiana way?
Have you watched the cold fog drifting over San Francisco Bay?


Have you heard a Bobwhite calling in the Carolina pines?
Or heard the bellow of a diesel in the Appalachia mines?
Does the call of Niagara thrill you when you hear her waters roar?
Do you look with awe and wonder at a Massachusetts shore...
Where men who braved a hard new world, first stepped on Plymouth Rock?
And do you think of them when you stroll along a New York City dock ?


Have you seen a snowflake drifting in the Rockies...way up high?
Have you seen the sun come blazing down from a bright Nevada sky?
Do you hail to the Columbia as she rushes to the sea...
Or bow your head at Gettysburg...in our struggle to be free?


Have you seen the mighty Tetons? ...Have you watched an eagle soar?
Have you seen the Mississippi roll along Missouri's shore?
Have you felt a chill at Michigan, when on a winters day,
Her waters rage along the shore in a thunderous display?
Does the word "Aloha"... make you warm?
Do you stare in disbelief When you see the surf come roaring in at Waimea reef?


From Alaska's gold to the Everglades...from the Rio Grande to Maine...
My heart cries out... my pulse runs fast at the might of her domain.
You ask me why I love her?... I've a million reasons why.
My beautiful America... beneath Gods' wide, wide sky.

A good poem for the fourth!

Why does it read so well? Does it have any regular meter? Many lines seem to have eight feet and some i'm not sure of.

The meter on a whole is pretty good in this poem. I do see where the line about Aloha should have been combined with the next one so that both lines would end with the "ief" sound. "Does the word "Aloha"... make you warm? Do you stare in disbelief? When you see the surf come roaring in at Waimea reef?" I am a stickler for meter being just right...It drives me nuts..........

I simply cut and paste, may have been a problem with the website I was using.

As for meter...it appears to be an even 15..sometimes broken in 7/8 or 8/7. Regardless. It works. And maybe it works simply because it is about the beauty of God's creation--nothing more and nothing less.

Yes, I agree, it does work.

I was reading Canterbury Tales last night. They seem to be in 'iambic pentameter;' and in Nevill Coghills translation seem to float along easily when read at a good pace. Here's a sample from the prologue.

"A holy-minded man of good renown
There was, and poor, the Parson to a town,
Yet he was rich in holy thought and work.
He also was a learned man, a clerk,
Who truly knew Christ's gospel and would preach it
Devoutly to parishioner, and teach it.
.................
Holy and virtuous he was, but then
Never contemptuous of sinful men,
Never disdainful, never too proud or fine,
But was discreet in teaching and benign.
His business was to show a fair behaviour
And draw men thus to Heaven and their Saviour,

I must protest
I don't agree
The meter's not
Just right
For me.
To just throw in
An extra word
Upsets the flow
Of what I heard.
Write if you wish
In verse that's free
But don't expect me
to agree.