god'swife26 Aug 2002

I get an honest sense of what this experience is like, but again it's all about the editing. You've really created some beautiful images: The girl crying behind her sunglasses, hands of cowards, The dead making miracles, the living, not the dead as the ultimate sufferers. Say the same line over and over in different ways, for example, hands of cowards could be cowardly hands etc. Try to avoid the overuse of prepositions and small words which don't add to what you're discribing especially of, the, and, that. Example: presence of God might sound/look better as God's presence. Or the 1st line in the second stanza might
work better as ....remain in the hearts you touched.... These are just tools writers use to hone down meaning. For the majority of successful writers it takes many revisions and I mean many, before they feel their poem is finished. I like your poem. I lost my father 7 yrs ago, I miss him more every year.