"Down in the hen house on my knees
I thought I heard a chicken sneeze"

They don't write lines like those anymore.

I've been down in the basement on my knees, laying tile in two rooms and a hallway. If anyone sneezes, it's likely to be me, for all the accumulated dust in the old carpet we pulled out.

Nice to see the postings in here. Like you, Ebbie, I'm no poet. At least no one has officially given me a certificate to prove it. I think that we're all like the Cowardly Lion, the Tin Woodsman and the scarecrow, though. We are already what we claim not to be. We're just looking for someone behing the curtains to tell us that we are. One interesting thing that I've seen in the black community is that people write poetry as naturally and unaffectedly as breathing. People are constantly reading poems they've written at memorial services, or weddings or anniversaries. I really like that.
There is no concept of there being poets, and the rest of us lugs. Anybody can write poetry, and being thought of as a "poet" is completely immaterial.

Meanwhile, it's back down on my knees. Anyone got any prayers they want lifted up? I'll already be down on my knees...

Jerry