[Allen Tice]

Roger, your Time Travel is far better than should be allowed here. Compared to it, what's Updike? (PBUH)

I also think your My Heart Has Ears is also very funny in a bilobar way.

I feel like procrastinating right now.

[Julie Steiner]

[Withdrawn for submission]

[Wendy Sloan]

A real (worst poem contest) winner -- Julie!!!
Rock on.

[Roger Slater]

I think the bad poems really should be good poems, but Julie's poem overdoes it a bit and is far too good to be considered a bad poem. I think it's fabulous, actually.

[Janice D. Soderling]

Yes, it is fabulous, and so is Bob's one about time taking the train.

We are sure to see both of them gracing highly reputable sites.

Some people just can't write a bad poem no matter how hard they try,

[Marion Shore]

Bob, I'm afraid you're regressing. I think you peaked with the frog poem. Your recent efforts, especially Time Travel, are far too good. It's possible you're just a flash-in-the-pan Bad Poet. Better get back to your comfort zone.

Not being rude, just being honest.

[Roger Slater]

FLOWERS

I think that I shall never smell
a perfume sweet as asphodel

or roses in their well-tilled bed
whose air-borne pollen fills my head

to overcome my soul's great shyness
while doing damage to my sinus.

But that's a price I gladly pay
for smelling flowers every day.

Fools like me can blow their noses,
but only God can give us roses.

[R. S. Gwynn]

The Pain in My Heart

I was looking for something in the garage
And I found your dusty golf-cart.
Your fishing rod leans in the corner
Like this lonely pain in my heart.

In the closet your shirts still hang
Like a memory that will not depart.
Some of them have long collars like
This longstanding pain in my heart.

In the drawer I found a metal bracket
That must be a spare part
To something. It reminded me
Of your loss, this pain in my heart.

Wherever I look in the house
I feel love's wounding dart
And it hurts me as sorely as
Angina, the pain in my heart.

[Roger Slater]

Sam, is it just my imagination, or do you keep on getting worse every day? Bravo!

HERO

My wife and daughter think I'm brave,
but no, I'm just an average Joe
with populations I must save.
And when I save them, I will go.

I'd like to take a bow, of course,
but that's not what I do it for.
I'm not John Wayne upon a horse.
I'm just an average Joe at war.

Let politicians fight their fight.
Democracy, you know,
makes all decisions come out right
in the life of an average Joe.

[Marion Shore]

Bob, here's the bad news: "Flowers" is good. The last two lines are, I'm sorry to say , brilliant. The good news is, "Hero" is bad.

Sam's "The Pain in My Heart" is a gem. Or should I say 'lump of coal'?