Stop, Drop and Roll

Hi Wes,

I've been meaning to write to you to thank you PERSONALLY for submitting to the writing contest.  It was fun standing in line with you at the SLCL, and  I really enjoyed your poem--WAITING IN LINE TO SEE CAROLINE!  Could definitely relate! I'm sure you'll continue writing--and maybe you'll submit again next year.  We'll have a new prompt--who knows how it will inspire you!

Amy Gage
Coordinator, Jade G. Bute Writing Contest
Chesterfield Arts is located at 444 Chesterfield Center, Chesterfield, MO 63017
May 9, 2013

(Amy - You Inspire and I think that is so very cool. My Caroline poem didn't win. This one can do no worse. Thank you Amy Gage.)
 
Why the poetry? Why write?
Who really cares? Day or Night?
An idea, a thought , a turn of a phrase,
To express a feeling, you say.

Top – down, focus groups, crowd-sourcing,

Your opinion matters, certainly worth voicing.
Yet it takes winning the hearts and the minds,
Of innovators, adaptors, a share of mankind. 

A composition, a prayer, a Van Gogh chair.
Interpret and comment - isn’t that fair?
Color and beauty, cut and paste.
In the eye of the beholder - no time to waste.

With zeros and ones, knowledge transfers,
Managers always looking for answers.
The books don’t lie but maybe big data does.

Good news, bad news, it’s not like it was.

A composite drawn from inference and transactions,

Of mindless musings and an aggregate of thoughtless actions.
Try to forget while crying online. Think of the sales.
Projections. BOOM. A bomb explodes, the terror prevails.

Posers, composers, foreclosures, look before you leap.

We learn we’ve miles to go before we sleep.
FDR said nothing to fear but fear
Tomorrow, a week, a month or a year

How long for soft science or hard facts

To break down, analyze, interpret, allow us to relax.
…Again, again it all begins.
For a period of time, at least, nobody wins.  

It must add up, point by point…maybe more than a year.
The meaning is abstract, fuzzy and yet, really so clear

You will never return to that time when everything was new.
Justice for all and equity for even a few.