John,

It has been so long since I read your work.
This poem sounds so bitter, I hope it is not really how you feel. It is indeed so that we are surrounded by so much evil and there are so many reasons why you could let your head hang down..but amidst all this there is also beauty, it is a matter of where your focus is and accepting there will always be adversity too.

Good job on this!

God bless and a hug,

5/5 Ingrid

A good poem, very deep. 5/5

It's been a while since I've read your poetry, John. I disagree with Ingrid's above depiction of your poem. This poem speaks with bitter irony, yes, but I feel it was only written this way to highlight the beauty that Ingrid alluded to, especially in your last stanza, which is written to heart-wrenching perfection and links to your first stanza almost magically, seamlessly.
The beauty of the world isn't just in sunlight and children and good times-- it can reside in the dirtiest, the most corrupt, the most hopeless of places. For even for this to happen, there needs to be passion and strength and faith and an innocence. And from this conflict, there arises art, a thing of beauty indeed.

Yes.