It Could Have Been Better Poem by DEEPAK KUMAR PATTANAYAK

It could have been better
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Not that
He is a man not of letters
And not that
I am a man not bashful and shy
But eager to show him my works fair
I wandered up and down
When his hospitable eyes
On my works cast down
He read and reviewed

While I screwed up my courage
To hear his acrid words
Seconds passed
Minutes passed
And an hour struck
Behind I found a precept left
That read 'it could have been better''
Is it the truth, Sir, I wonder?

My reward lies
In the pleasure of my work
In the release of my thought
Unless freed the soul is pained
And with the passage of time
He was right I concluded
Me my experience has taught
Unless you innovate
Somebody will you beat
But Sir I care not a bit
For praise or censure

As I am a writer amateur
And a little stream-let seeking its way
But feeling lost among that multitude
And I bow down to those talents
Who have been blessed with good brains
But, Sir, blame me not
Blame Him as the culprit
Who has blessed me a little brain
That runs precisely within its groove
And I can not tease it to go to its grave

Still put thoughts more and more
So that readers could relax reading your piece
And readers could be whiled away of tedium
Of journey for a moment's peace
With this I paid my homage to that great soul
Whose precept proved right with the passage of time
And I sometimes wonder
If these writings are at all good
And if good it could have been better.....