Your poem is evocative of all the things that we have lost, as you rightly put it "A period when peace was possible // a time when there seemed to be humaneness."

I know a reboot is possible. I do it all the time when something goes wrong with my computer or phone, I simply reboot and the problem seems to be solved. How I wish that might be possible with the encroaching problems of our age; but I think the age itself, a technological age of wondrous surprises is merely overshadowing the ages of the past, a more "traditional time" when such things as peace, harmony and serenity where there for the having for individual people according to their own effort and inspiration. A thought-provoking poem indeed.

I was never very good at rapid cursive handwriting. So, before computers, I printed everything I wrote. These last few generations of children (not all of them) seem doomed. The forces coming against them are mind-boggling. And yes.... maybe a reboot would help. But exactly what would that be? And it seems that the planet is being subjected to the same degradation. Earth and her inhabitants are in trouble. But of course, all of this has been prophesied. And, as I've said before, whether one is a believer or not, all the prophecies in scripture will be fulfilled. Enjoyed your poetic thoughts, ole friend. That image brought back a lot of memories. Peace.... rlc

I fully agree. What good are children saved who are so flawed and poor as they add to the hungry and suffering masses while the rich totally ignore them only interested in piling up more riches and keeping score as to who is ahead of the other.

I recall in our schools, where dull pencils made poor penmanship. We would go to the window where we would crank by hand, the pencil sharpener so that we could write in cursive or letters better. But, you were referring to sharpening our minds when it comes to what is right and what is wrong.

Today, I dictate with my voice, making my poor spelling go away. And, I can run grammar and spelling checks after to make my writing and my punctuation near perfect. But I must also, as you indicate, make sure that I am writing the right stuff. The kind that sent our best and brightest to outer space and the Moon by looking outward rather than thinking inward in a selfish way.

It's time to save the planet, not human greed.

Ron

This is exceptionally appropriate, the topic, the title “Sharpening.” It swings wide the door for comments and I hope you receive LOTS of them, full of perception, possibility, imagination itself…comments about this “Sharpening.” Rereading and rereading — appreciating the image that is powerful enough to put the smell of newly sharpened pencils in the mixture.

My yellow highlighter streaks across these four lines: “This generation/Is destined for a reboot/“ …”Somewhere in time when the mammalian intelligence/Could measure worth with sanity” So powerful these two also: “Do something/Radical change is necessary”. Most prominent is “Do something”!! Two herculean words put together, Odin. From my point of view looking upon global society, humanness is searching. Our species is in free-fall, needing more and more tattoos, needing new identities, needing seen as individual, needing to ‘belong’ to a group, needing to belong to the species we are, needing to belong to even ourselves. Shaken Adult Syndrome could be a description of this conundrum — and with no composed moderating adult-status person left in any room, Congress members turn on each other in what resembles a grade school cafeteria food fight, and the whole cloth from which we are cut, becomes shredded into what looks like a tangled wad of threads. I am left wondering ‘whatever could reboot THIS?’ — I guess we just keep writing, painting, making music and ‘opening doors,’ ~~ djl