Well, thanks for asking - quite a nice surprise... <br />first off, you have my passionate support - <br />for how could I believe in any less <br />of poetry, its value and its power? <br /> <br />And I know well of you, that despite all <br />your youthful, quick impatience, so sharp shown <br />to those, the wrinkly; grey; not keen on change - <br />you'd like to hear our comments on your work; <br />yes, even to reject them, red of face... <br /> <br />But spare a thought for ageing minds and hearts - <br />like comfortable kitchen-cupboard store <br />in that beloved house of realised dreams <br />where we can now at last just be ourselves, <br />where favourite brands cram out the sagging shelves <br />with jars not opened for too many a year - <br />more for sentiment, than for some new cuisine; <br />there's not much room for untried brands, alas - <br /> <br />'despite the fervour with which youth may praise <br />the heart-wrench of those wild love-seeking days, <br />or praise in detail Her so unique sight <br />to eyes so red from passionate wild night'... <br /> <br />there's not much room for endless rhymes for love <br />now, in the store-room of our ageing hearts; <br />we've been there, got the Tshirt (somewhere there, and <br />rotting from the dazzling blue sea's salt <br />of love's abundance, into which we two splash-dived) : <br /> <br />So please excuse us if we don't pour praise - <br />however fine your wild and winning ways; <br />we're poetry-besotted; live in thought; <br /> <br />know this: our passionate and full support.<br /><br />Michael Shepherd<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/to-a-younger-poet/
