I wrote a short little poem about butterflies when I was in high school. One day our English teacher told us that a famous poet was going to visit our school and critique our poems. We were each to choose one poem and write it out on a piece of transparent plastic so that it could be shown on an overhead projector. The day came for the poet to visit and all of the English classes assembled in the auditorium. Up on the stage were a large screen and the overhead projector. One of the teachers introduced the woman who was a famous poet and she proceeded to put our poems up on the projector and talk about them. To my surprise and delight, my butterfly poem was one of the first to go up. She told everyone that she really liked this poem. She thought the structure was excellent and the word choices exceptional. She said that what truly set this poem apart was the choice of the word ‘caves’ in the last sentence. She said that with a little work to set up that image earlier in the poem, it would be something to be proud of and could possibly win an award. Then a girl who didn’t like me very much raised her hand. "I think that is an ‘r’ and not a ‘v’, so it actually says ‘cares’" The famous poet stared up at the screen for a long time pondering this, "Well that changes things," she said, snatching the transparency off the projector, "in that case it’s just crap." And thus ended my promising career as a famous poet. You won’t find much poetry here, that’s because the poems I write now are usually private and also I like prose much better. I hope that you enjoy the writings I have collected here. If you do (and even if you don’t) please send me a note letting me know what you think.

jcarnell-writings@usa.net