To My Super Souper Friends

Alot of you folks have been able to say what you feel this holyday season with exquisite wording and beautiful sentiments. I can't do that. Maybe if I tell you a story about a little kid who was raised and worked on a farm. A farm boy in a class of city kids is ridiculed for some reason and beat up alot cause that proves to city kids that they're strong when they beat up a farmer kid. So I did the best I could with my sense of humor, got beat up when challenged and avoided other confrontations by learning to run real fast! When they picked teams for basketball, I was odd kid out. Too little. I found it hard to fit in anywhere. One fine day our 7th grade teacher gave us a homework assignment to write a poem which we would read aloud in class the next day.The stipulation was that, on your honor, you could have no help whatsoever. A solo project. After chores that night, I did as she said and was surprised at how easy it was. The next day, when it was my turn, I timidly read aloud to the class the first poem I ever wrote. When I finished, I awaited the verdict . All was quiet. The teacher told me to sit down. I did. She then admonished me for cheating on my assignment and getting help. Of course I did not. I still vividly remember how it felt to have all my peers watching me as our teacher dismissed me for a cheater with a look of disdain on her face. I was speechless, devastated and embarrassed by what others thought. The experience pushed me deeper into myself than I had ever been.. It's amazing to me how these feelings are resurfacing en force as I write about it. I've written poetry on and off since then but never taken it seriously. It was just some force that reared itself once in a while until it was subdued by writing one. Now, in the autumn of my life, something very strange and wonderful is happening. I have been introduced to you, my poetry soup friends. The injustice done to my poetic soul is every day being identified by myself, rectified and healed by your loving support. I'm no longer throwing my poems away. You have given me in two months what has been missing since the 7th grade. You have given me courage, confidence, encouragement and the companionship to take up where I was left off. Because of all of you, I can grow again. I was at a stalemate in alot of things and then this. Coincidence? More like Christ incidence. Get it? YOU are my Christmas gift from Love come down! This is my card to you. GOD BLESS YOU ALL.- ROBERT