A DEDICATION TO THE GREAT POETS OF OUR TIME

I dedicate to you, the gift of poem, to all those who've came before me

you inadvertently set the path for me, to entertain and educate with poetry

A gifted student am I, who's learned from the best that's captivated the world for generations

so allow me to give thanks and acknowledge a few, allow me to show my appreciation

To Maya Angelou, who defined just what it meant to be a "Phenomenal woman Phenomenally", who taught me how to deal with adversity so wise so even to the day "Still I rise"

To Shel Silverstein who taught to overcome, amazing creations where shall I begin, like "The Bear in there", "Messy room" and "where the sidewalk ends"

"if you forget me", like Pablo Neruda said, then I'll be "Walking around" without a purpose

My passion evolves from good readings created by people like E.E. Cummings truly, he taught me how to love and carry on through pain like with "Seeker of Truth" and "I carry your heart with me"

Robert E. Frost, taught courage and wisdom, like sometimes having a hard choice to make, for he didn't dwell with shortcurts too well in his classic "The road not taken"

I learned to dream though, from Edgar Allen Poe, how to mistify and manipulate words...like a "Dream within a dream", how i found "Romance" and the "Raven" enchanted my world.

Emily Dickinson and Langston Hughes, Ezra Pound and Oscar Wilde...with such classics as "A girl" and who can forget "Life is fine", and as always, "There is another sky"

Walt Whitman, Robert Frost and William Wordsworth, oh yes and Mark Strand...unique in their own rights, oustanding composers they had me "wandering lonely as a cloud" while I was "Stopping by the woods, on a very snowy evening"

At times I had those "Funeral blues" but felt solice when I was "touched by an angel".."If those I loved were lost" I'd relate to Emily Dickinson, or William Shakespeare...

"I taught myself to live Simply" as my "Dreams deferred" to a better time, admiring the "Red Red Rose", like the works of Robert Burns, and DylanThomas because I "Do not dare go gentle into that good night"

My "happiness" on "A pretty a day" far outweight "those winter Sundays" thanks to Raymond Carver, and E.E. Cummings, and the works of Robert Hayden

So I leave to you, my dedication, my appreciation for the pathway you've layed, for an up and coming poet, in my own right, I say Thank You for the rest of my days.