Idealism (a poem)
When I was but a stupid boy
I had a stupid thought
That if you told a story well
And that story was easily bought
That you could save yourself from hell
If the story was rightly wrought
And the telling would end in joy.
………………..
But when I was an awkward youth
I tried my tale to spin
And awkwardly my words went wrong
And my story failed to win
And readers sang that critical song
And laughter crept right in
And my steering was not strong
My story was uncouth.
……………….
But as a mostly mature man
I tried to tell the truth
And live my life by a mature code
And profit from lessons of youth
And composed a much more stable ode
That rhymed while showing tooth
And defended my small abode.
I executed my story’s plan.
Finally, I wisely became real old
And I warily and wisely began to lie
I made of life a serious joke
And ate my small piece of the pie
I laughed and watched the faces in the smoke
As the fires began to die
And I made the point as I wisely awoke
My story is now told.
Catch a Falling Star 
Nicely done, Mickey. I enjoyed the different stages of reflection and reaction. Keith
Thank you. Sometimes good ideas occur to me while I’m complaining about being old and irritable. I had the “Ages of Man” speech from Shakespeare’s “As You Like It” in mind when I composed it. Of course, Jaques who speaks it is a Shakespearian clown and fool, so I wonder what it says about me really.
Never underestimate the power of a Shakespearean clown. I think one of the greatest opera songs is sung by the clown.
Paggliachi! Probably spelled wrong.
Nice. It feels like the poetic equivalent of the naive art (which I think of, perhaps amateurishly, as folk art without the cultural boundaries) that you see in one of the side rooms of art museums.
I’ll have you know that I am really quite good at writing terrifically bad poetry. It is something I excel in. I almost won an Intergalactic Bad Poetry Contest once, but they allowed Vogons to enter, so I couldn’t do better than fifth place galaxy-wide.
Hahaha. OK, I will try to pad your resume with some insults on your poetry in the future.
Hahaha!