WELL, CONSIDERING THE FACT THAT WE 'ERR' EACH AND EVERY DAY OF OUR LIVES(IN THOUGHT, WORD, ACTION & DEED)...IT IS GOOD TO MAKE A 'CONNECTION' WITH OUR MAKER(IT NEED NOT BE LONG, JUST SINCERE) DAILY AND ASK FORGIVENESS FOR 'ERRORS' WHICH WE MAY OR MAY NOT EVEN BE AWARE THAT WE'VE MADE. CERTAINLY, MERCY AND GRACE COVERS OUR 'MISTAKES' BUT WE DO NOT TAKE THESE 'GIFTS' FROM GOD FOR GRANTED, LEST WE FIND OURSELVES ERRING WITHOUT A SECOND THOUGHT... BECAUSE WE FEEL WE HAVE A 'LEANING POST' IN GOD'S LOVE. SO THEN SPECIFICALLY, HOW MANY TIMES? THERE IS A HYMN LIKE THIS, 'JUST A LITTLE TALK WITH JESUS MAKES IT RIGHT'. THANK YOU, JOHN. LOVE, BLESSINGS AND FAITH...HIS+INSPIRATIONS

The ability to face up to one's dilemma--and not blame others--is admirable in a society that blames others for so many problems one is experiencing. Your position of honesty and sharing your thoughts is a testament to the value of words and emotions when the reader truly feels them. I am one of them: Diana, another. Your words do remind me once again--a position I've shared with you before--that we can, sometimes with great effort, accept that we are always where we need to be, and that for every ill feeling about an experience is an invitation to find the lesson wanting to be learned... and for us, share.

Oh! This is rich in authenticity and ripe with honesty, whether it is your story, someone else’s story, or fiction. You have captured the emotional squeeze from the heavy weight of conscience. I absolutely love the perfection in the exact way you have worded these lines. I resonate with each and every one of them. And whatever placed you in position to capture this human condition, it produced a masterful depiction of angst, of agony over how unsurmountable is our disappointment and dismay over that which we want to alter but can’t seem to make the change. This harshness is likely rained down upon most of us over a plethora of actions taken and not taken. And maybe the little light only shines as the one at the end of the tunnel — that leads to The Great Beyond. We are only human and that holds hands with what you have written, as well as those feelings that are opposite this poem, which are writings about ‘forgiving’ ourselves. Your ‘How Many Times’ certainly makes me what to write a piece on ‘forgiving ourselves.’ Maybe I’ll just do that. Thank you, John. I read you to be a very conscious individual. Thank you****** ~~ djl. {My favorite line is “How many, how many times, so many times,” — that is monumental in my eyes.}

Dark indeed! What a surprise from your usual way of writing poetry. It seems so personal, as though those things actually befell you. But poetry is one way to let them out and in the end, see a little light.

Ron