Ever After

Thanks so much Marguerite. Cheers - Gary

I’m smiling Marguerite due to your typo: “ outstretched lines of beans" / beams. Hey, when it comes to children anything is possible :) Thanks again Marguerite. I appreciate you taking the time to read and comment. I’ll have a read of your own winning poem later today. Cheers - Gary

Thank you Trina! Cheers - Gary

Thanks Andrea. Social media is teaching kids what to think these days wheras stories taught our generation how to think.My thoughts anyway :) Cheers - Gary

Thanks Susan :) I find it interesting when I look back on my older poems and wonder as to where my mindset was at at the time of writing them. It was great to read your comments and particularly: "I adored bedtime stories as a child and always read to my children in the evenings too. I enjoyed it as much as an adult as I did as a child. They do ignite the imagination, the heart and soul, for sure."...Yessss! I'm so with you all the way. :) I wrote down in my own notes when I originally wrote this poem that: "The poem pines for a lost time of bedtime stories, exalts the benefits reading has on a child's mind and acts as a metaphor of sorts for that period in a child's life when growing up means a certain loss of innocence and a gradual coming to terms with some of life's realities: no more bedtime stories and no more drawing of the sun with a hat or face." :). Cheers - Gary

Thanks Mark. Bedtime reading, I'm convinced, helps build the solid foundation on which a child's imagination can grow. Cheers - Gary

Hi Sam. All the best for the New Year. I think bedtime stories provide the perfect foundation for a child's imagination to grow. I don't understand how, for many kids today, a tv or a cell phone at bedtime can stimulate their imagination but I guess this 61 year old would say that after all the fantastic nighttime reads I was party to as a child. :) Thanks again and Cheers - Gary

Thank you Sara. I hope all is well with you and your family. Have a lovely Christmas. Cheers - Gary

Hi Valsa. Yes..and a metaphor too for the loss of childhood innocence. Thank you for visit, read and lovely comments. Cheers - Gary

Thank you Gordon. They used to be an essential part of childhood. I'm not too sure anymore. Cheers - Gary

Hi Christopher. I used to love the bedtime stories as a kid. I think they helped develop my imagination. I suspect kids today take their mobile phones with them to bed or watch TV. Maybe I'm being unfair and stories still get told. I think that a stage in childhood passes once the bedtime stories stop. Cheers - Gary

Thank you Sam for your lovely comments. Personally, I never did grow up..in fact I often feel that although my body has aged I often feel I'm growing down. :) Cheers - Gary

Thank you Jeanette. Cheers - Gary

Hi Brandy. Thank you for your lovely, profound comments. I appreciate your visit. Cheers - Gary

Thank you for your visit and congratulations Panagiota. I appreciate it. Cheers - Gary

Thank you Gordon and please give my regards to all North of the Border :) Cheers - Gary

Thank you Constance. Cheers - Gary

Many Thanks Kim! Cheers - Gary

Thanks so much John. I'm smiling at your comment because at one point I was playing around with a third stanza and the idea of the child growing up and reading to his own children but I never got far with it. Thanks again. Cheers - Gary

Gary, I also am one who makes edits as I see fit, post-submission. I had no quarrel with v1.0 but I think your v2.0 strolls along at an even smoother gait. Well done.

Thanks John! I've edited the poem a little since you last commented on it...sometimes I just can't leave poems alone. :) Cheers - Gary

Thanks so much Connie :) Cheers- Gary

Hi Milt. Yes, you did fav it. Thanks so much for your continued support and encouragement. Cheers - Gary

Joseph, thanks so much for your visit and congratulations. Once a child no longer draws a hat on the sun or gives it a face I sense they are growing up. Cheers - Gary

Agreed Ann. The naivety of childhood is a wonderful thing. Thanks. Cheers - Gary