Awww this is so touching!

At first when I read the title it made me think of the wooden spoon used at my parent's place and my memory of the wooden spoon was not very fond.

I read this and my thoughts on it had changed. I love the image of the circular patterns faded on the handle. It makes me think of the tree and the circular patterns inside a tree.

I find it so adorable that your child had raved that the food was better when you started cooking with the wooden spoon. I guess now that when you have used it for years, the flavours from every dish had sunk in and releases when you cook anything else.

A beautiful poem filled with lovely images. Heart warming Larry,

Thanks for sharing

x

I thought this was great. I know you used it in the contest but I think it had a lot of meaningful words behind it. Such memories we can have from things so small. I thought this really went well together and the imagery here was great. It was as if opening a family album with pictures with love. All in all a great job. :)

This piece just shows raw family love. The fact that such an object would have asignificant meaning in your life as well as your childs. Its amazing how you described the faded colors of the spoon, and the different food dyes that tend to change its color over the period of time. Wooden objects can last for a long time, but it ages with alot of marks showing the period of time from when it was used.

Just the warmth of this piece bring a smile to my face.

Loved it <3

When you sent me this for the contest, I thought "wow, what a heart this man has", how you took an inanimate object and brought it to life was breathtaking. How you described using this spoon was creative and unique. There was nothing to critique or dislike, it's just a really good write.

Such an amazing job
xx

This piece really touched me. It emotes love and nostalgia and does so in a simple, unforced way. This demonstrates how a simple poem that is real and speaks from the heart is more effective than a poem wrapped in a thousand fancy metaphors and similes.

There are a couple of minor things that could be tweaked if you wanted:

In terms of grammar, you have commas where you shouldn't have them and don't have them where you should. Conversely, you could get rid of all the external commas and simply use your natural line breaks to set up the pauses.

Stanza 1 is the strongest imo. It is smooth and descriptive and immediately gets the reader engaged and wanting to read more.

In stanza 2, you use the word "it" twice, which is one two many times.

In stanza 3, the last line is a non sequitur. Plus, you have already stated that the spoon has "faint colors," and now you are saying it is "brightly colored". I assume you mean that it was originally colored brightly, but now has faded. But I think you can word it differently to give the reader a better picture of the spoon when it was first presented to you, to contrast it with the way it is now.

Stanza 4 has three "its" and is the weakest stanza.

Stanza 5 ( IMO) should begin like this: "Although the colors have long since faded," this simple gift of love...
Also, I hate to see you end such a wonderfully personal poem with such an overused cliche.

I really enjoyed reading this poem. I love how it's about something so simple, a wooden spoon, yet it was so meaningful. I love how this wooden spoon has so many memories, and it just made me smile about a nice unified, happy family.

I also love how the spoon was used with love <3

I really enjoyed this poem, great job! :)

Larry,

It's amazing what little things make life so special. This piece is simple with love and that to me is what family is about. Family can have complexity and yet at the end of the day you strip it back and you find this pure simple ball of love and this poem represents that beautifully.

This poem reminded me of that little saying about cooking with love and I guess that's what gives your cooking just that splash more of it, the idea of a soup or stew is so hearty and It really depicts the depth of love you have.

I don't have much to say in regards to how the poem was written, I didn't find an error but rather a lot of emotion that can only be described as gorgeous. I grew up without really having a father in my life and for me to read a poem where a father is happy to keep his daughter smiling by using her "silly" wooden spoon, well that touched the heart.

-Mel

I loved this poem! It is so wonderful how something so small that could mean nothing to everyone else but mean the world to you. I loved how descriptive it was and how you showed a lot of feeling through an object because of its importance to you. I had to read this because the title jumps out at you, nice job.

@ KIKO: Brutally honest as always.
;-)

This poem grabbed my heart and allowed me to feel the beauty and unconditional love a parent has for a child. This poem left me teary and made my heart feel warm and fuzzy-
Loved the Metaphor!!!

Title: The title is perfect- This is the heart of the poem and it drew me in-

First stanza: Excellent description of the wooden spoon. Allowing me to see this spoon that the author writes of... A great start to this piece-

Second Stanza: I find it interesting how the author says "nothing unique" because this allows the reader to know, that its priceless and a special spoon.

Third Stanza: Ok now I cried- When a child makes something for their parents- Its worth more than gold!!!! And I could actually visualize the child handing the parent that precious spoon, with smiles on both of their faces- Love this stanza!!

Fourth Stanza: Oh be still my heart! Children are precious! And I could see the radiance within this stanza- the excitement of the parent using the spoon for the first time!!! So so so cute- I adored this stanza-

Fifth Stanza: That spoon is far more than a spoon and the author explains that in his closing stanza and as I read this, I had tears of joy streaming down my face-

Ending Comment: There is nothing more special or priceless than a child's love and the author captivated me with this poetic display of beauty. That spoon is a gift that not only touched the heart of the author but now for all of us who read this wonderful poem!! -Well done Larry Chamberlin the Godfather

Love can been expressed in so many ways but this one is the most unique and the most honest one.