A sad truism in today's world. I only smoked for about 3 years and quit in 1983. Unfortunately, I still got COPD... A good thinking write!....M

This is a very moving, brilliantly written, and penetrating poem. You are one hell of a brilliant writer. Hope we can continue exchanging words and look forward to getting to know you better.

The addiction speaks. wonderfully written.:)

regards TeeJay Khan

(Cigarette, Oh, cigarette, why do you treat me so?
My love for you is so entwined; I can't ever let you go)"

I guess that there are many people,(Smokers)
around and across the world, who are saying,
those two line above in brackets.
Thanks for sharing, Ron!

Well, you've captured the addiction. Sad but true.

I have never smoked but my father did and one of my very young girlfriends and other friends. I find your "take" on the whole smoking thing very accurate. Love and peace to you, Ron.

Regis

I was an occasional smoker, not really drawing the smoke deep into my lungs...I especially like the picture...

Always,
Deborah

Love it! Visualization is outstanding!
Father-in-law was so addicted to this cylindrical poison that when he was near death and in a coma, he was unconsciously moving his hand to his mouth as if smoking!
Jon Peter

SO RELIEVED THAT GOD DELIVERED ME OVER TWENTY YEARS AGO...LITERALLY, OVERNIGHT! I AM SO GRATEFUL. GREAT POEM, DONE WELL ABOUT A VERY REAL AND SAD ADDICTION. THANKS FOR SHARING. LOVE, BLESSINGS AND FAITH...JOYCE * HIS INSPIRATIONS

I didn't realize that I would elicit so many smoking confessions. ;-)

Ron

I stopped when I was in my fifties and that was over 40 years ago. No doubt had I not I would not be writing this. Never start if you are wise and quit if addicted. Cold turkey is the only way to stop.

How true, now true, cigarette blues indeed. Having smoked for a few years in my teenage years and into my early twenties, I finally saw the light one day and gave it up, none too soon I might add. A bit of true confessions. Loved the poem. John

Just saw a sign today advertising a pack of Marlboro's for $6.45. I never got past the getting sick part, so I never really got started. It's one habit I'm glad I didn't pick up. I have enough bad habits as it is. Anyways, I inhaled the words of your poem with gusto, and exhaled in complete agreement. this was a smokin' poem.

Michael D.

So many people I have seen sick of the cigarette cancer or they wake up in morning and cough so hard you'd think they were coughing up a lung. To make the cigarette habit understood even more, I knew a lady that had one lung removed because she smoked so heavily and what was the first thing she did when released from the hospital, yes, you guessed it, lit up again...a few more years and she died too...-e-

Thanks be that I never took to smoking...did try rabbit tobacco when just a kid and even that left me coughing and spitting until we got back home. But I could follow your woes, and yearnings and also the destruction it left behind..and still the desire was more powerful than the fear of becoming ill. Thanks for sharing.Elizabeth Towles

I, too, can picture the lyrics to your poem playing on a juke in a honky tonk bar even though they've cleaned up their act due to the no smoking ordinance. I'm happy to say I've never smoked and grateful I haven't. Kudos to those who kicked the habit.

I quit smoking many years ago. No doubt about it I would be dead by now if I hadn't quit

There was a C&W song, "Smoke Smoke Smoke That Cigarett". I've got to go listen to it now.

Love ya!

Jane

This definitely would make a great blues song. I can even pick out a melody for it in my head. As a kid, my brother, our two best friends, and I smoked. We walked along the road, picking up discarded cigarette butts, tore them apart, and made our own cigarettes out of their contents. Talk about a "nasty" habit. Then I smoked off and on through school and in the army and till my youngest son was around seven. He developed allergies, and when we took him to the allergist, the doctor said he really didn't need to be living in a house with smoking going on. That was incentive enough for me to quit. That's been 37 years ago, and I haven't had a cigarette since. Now, I can't stand being around cigarette smoke. I know you didn't need to hear all this but thought I would pass it along anyway. Enjoyed your bluesy write.

David

Know the feeling, even though it's been 49 years since I quit. I think you covered the whole catastrophe.