Treasury of Wit, Wisdom and Advice

My poetry is meant to touch the hearts of every man and woman regardless of their station in life. They reflect my ability to operate at any level of sophistication. Proof is in the number of my poems now published by the Society of Classical Poets, as well as shared online and in specialized collections such as Western Writers and my college poetry annual. Great artists like great poets do not unnecessarily aspire to greatness, but rather to elucidation of that which fascinates them to their own satisfaction. To be sure they are on a great quest to unlock secrets, detail events, resolve inconsistencies, further knowledge, and explore the eternal, whether that be in this world or the next. They wish to share their insights, visions, and beauty with everyone through their chosen medium of expression. What makes paintings great, humor funny and contagious, and poetry meaningful? They all appeal to the senses of the common man, or woman; are enjoyed, because they engage the mind with their creativity; and thrill with how they elicit a viscerally exciting response within the heart. Cumbersome constructs that obfuscate these reactive pleasures of the senses, mind and heart with vagueness in a picture, or portrait; comical thoughts that are humorous only to a few; and indecipherable use of language in a poem may be judged great by the social snobs, those aspiring to demonstrate their erudition, and those who consider themselves superior in their interpretation of art for the masses, but fail to inspire the rest of the world seeking beautiful simplicity. I, for one, have never been inspired by modern art with its amorphous forms. I would never hang a chaotic Picasso on any wall in my home, nor most of the junk foisted upon us in the twentieth and twenty first centuries. The timeless humor of Mark Twain while hearkening back to another era, triggers a feeling of common cause and common virtue central to the morality and culture of every era. The simple similitudes and comparisons that elicited laughter by the humorist Will Rogers endure over the decades. Even Benjamin Franklin's tongue in cheek writings echo through the centuries. I enjoy the simple humor of an Ogden Nash or a Doctor Seuss; thrill to the dark and mournful tones of an Edgar Alan Poe; love the clear descriptions of a Henry Wadsworth Longfellow; and relax with the poems of a Robert Frost expositing and detailing simple life and simple values using simple country common terms and themes. I believe my poetry is educational, humorous, historically accurate, mythologically sensitive, romantic, inveighs against social and cultural degradation, and smashes untenable political concepts and icons. Although I could write doggerel at the bottom of the scale, modern monologue poetry without rhyme, or poetry of the highest linguistic order, I choose to write for all levels of taste, from the blue collar worker and family to the highest levels of society and academia. I purposely write so that every reader can understand my thought process, my realities, my fantasies, and my humor simply and comfortably reading or listening for themselves and feeling the heartfelt words which I hope to imbue with passion and perspective. Ultimately every reader is the judge of the value of the poetry and the poet. Each will find their own comfort level, comprehension of the poet's intent in writing the poem, and depth of feeling that the poems engender. Thus I leave it in your hands, mind, and heart.