Flannel Shirt Sleeve

I sense so much wisdom and kind of nostalgia in your poetry, and I love that, every piece of yours feels like a tiled little shanty at the top of an outliving mountain, it just feels so poetic. You always use the right words, the right colors and the right emotions for every idea. I admire the contradictions in this poem, especially the vivid yet isolated memory part, as if this memory is so close to your mind, you can feel it, live it again but it's old at the same time, it was like...many many many years ago or something, I'm just in awe! I couldn't imagine how a memory would be retrieved by a vision, until I remembered an old poem of yours (one of the poems I had to comment when you won and I lost or there was some kind of condition or promise, haha, remember?) Of course, visioning a memory would save it from oblivion, this thought is just digging my imagination, well-done. The flannel shirt metaphor was a smart choice as well as the colors used to describe it. The repetitions of some certain words felt a bit odd, at first, to me, but then, when I finished reading, I was ok with it, though I really have no idea if you had an intention of it or not.

'Firmly I held to the permise
that the world loved me,
would always protect me, and
happily ever after meant forever.'

I could totally feel you here, the word 'Firmly' refers to your conviction of being loved and protected, whether it be faked or not, I like it.

'It took just ten years for illusions
about a protective world to shatter,
ten years more brought the realization
that love is the most selfish of feelings;
hardly another decade was needed
to prove how very short is forever.'

You perfectly worded your inside, perfectly tuned your thoughts and it was a surprise how you explained yourself in that sensuous way. Yes, it is true... Forever is short for those who live it in complete satisfaction, regardless the hardships that might obstruct their ways and regardless the long days that could turn their hairs into grey, dye their skins with decrepitude but never decay their loving hearts. Gosh, if only you knew what these few lines did to me. The bit about love being the most selfish emotion didn't really interest me, I analyze love differently, see it to be sincere like an early morning, an innocent child even if this child is demanding and in need of patience and discipline.

Always write about life, Sir, I beg you.

Larry
The only thing that could overshadow the sheer beauty of your words is the wisdom brought forth in this poem. It's wisdom that comes from having lived to an age that allows one to look back over several decades to truly understand what it's all about; be it through a favorite toy, a familiar phrase or, yes, even a flannel shirt. This is a remarkable piece.
Anna

Wow Larry,
You have really outdone yourself with the visuals here. Quite touching that you found yourself in the same flannel shirt of a young boy and it brought about this feeling. I too have had similar dejavu when donning a bicycle. The innocent eyes of children seem to behold something we can never understand, though we seem to understand more than is needed in our years since youth. Wonderfully penned with touches of nostalgia.

Wow this poem is great:) I really love it, it inspires the reader:) you r really wise:)

Larry,
This is such a well written poem, not purely for it's qualities as flow and wording, but it shows wisdom that time teaches us to learn from our mistakes and to love a little more for we can grow in ourselves through the past

The images were vivid and the emotion strong, but the hope and in the inspiration to me here was the strongest quality, that age is beauty

love
xxx