So many of us older folks treasure books, not books on a laptop or phone, but books of paper and ink that have weight, volume, and a physical presence. And the simple, elegant rhyming made Jane's message even more wonderful.

I opened a book and made some friends. I shared their tears and laughter And followed their road with its bumps and bends To the happily ever after. I finished my book and out I came. The cloak can no longer hide me. My chair and my house are just the same, But I have a book inside me.

The author of a cowboy poetry collection called Corral Dust, Bob also wrote a nonfiction book called Free Grass to Fences, about the Montana cattle industry. This poem, "Open Range”, was the basis for the hugely successful Cole Porter song, "Don't Fence Me In.”

I have a slim green note-book, a school book with margins, lines. Rubber-tipped pencils. It doesn't seem so Philistine to consign inner thoughts to pages - though eventually they end up upon that screen that reflects me as I write. It is as though my Lap-top has gobbled me up, made me an inevitable part of the contents of its interior

1. A path leads, to where wild grass grows, sashaying in the summer breeze. 2. Along the path, lightness settles within, feeling the grass, swooning,

poems published long ago on paper in little magazines decades before computers appeared. The poems were born on a Royal typewriter with carbon paper serving as midwife. He was the only one I didn't sent out but didnâ t have the heart to abort. I took him upstairs to see if my skills as a surgeon had developed. Maybe I could give him

Ask for this YDP anthology at your favorite bookstore or order it online today!

Why does he not want to see me? Is it all a game, For when I saw him the last time, ---Wait, the rain... Maybe he wasn't kind to me The last time we met;

Thank you for your comments. The 4th stanza is meant as the transition through the Last Judgment. Truth prevails, granting eternal reward. Between the lines I leave it to the reader to identify with the imagery and decide whether both halves of the poem are about the same two people. Posted 07/05/2011 07:23 AM

This black moth flew in the front door of the living room the other night and has been up on the ceiling ever since. It's hanging upside down