Fortunes

Lawerence E. Mize 1949 (Baltimore, MD)



I used to dream of fortunes
And having material things.
Now, I dream of smiles
Only little children bring.

Children bring you Riches
In what they do and say.
Lighten up your heart,
On long cold dreary days.

They never ask for much.
To them, you are the world.
They only need your love
To make them happy boys and girls.

Poor is the man
Who pushes them away.
He'll never know the love... A Fortune,
He could have had one day.

About this poem

I've a proud grandfather of three of my youngest sons children. Whenever they come to visit the house fills up with their antics and laughter. They are a great source of joy for my wife, Sandy, and I.

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Written on January 17, 2020

Submitted by larrymize on February 06, 2022

Modified on March 05, 2023

28 sec read
7

Quick analysis:

Scheme XXXX XAXX XXXX XAXA
Closest metre Iambic trimeter
Characters 427
Words 95
Stanzas 4
Stanza Lengths 4, 4, 4, 4

Lawerence E. Mize

Lawerence E. Mize was born in Baltimore, Maryland, in 1949. At the age of seventeen he enlisted in the U.S. Army and served as a medical corpsman with the 101st Airborne Division. A month after his eighteenth birthday he began his one year tour of duty in the Republic of Vietnam. He served with the "Screaming Eagles," of the 101st Airborne Division as a combat medic with A Company of the 2/501st Airmobile Division. On completing his military obligation he returned home to Baltimore and joined the Baltimore City Police Department at the age of twenty-one. Mize went on to serve with the Baltimore City Police Department for the next twenty-nine years retiring as a Sergeant in 1999. Mize then went on to become a District Court Bailiff in 2003. He left that position in 2018 and now likes to spend his time riding his bicycle, writing poems, and traveling with his wife Sandy whom he has been married to for the last forty-eight years. They have two sons, Lawerence Jr. and Nicholas. Mize has self-published six books of poetry since 1997, to include two works about his experiences in Vietnam, "Tortured Soul and Dead Men Calling, (both published by American Literary Press, Inc. Baltimore, Maryland), both of which helped Lawerence deal with the painful memories of Vietnam; a book of poems he dedicated to his wife, Sandy, titled "Thoughts of You," (Tate Publishing & Enterprises, Mustang, Oklahoma); a book of poems about life and dying titled "Reflections," (CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform, North Charleston, SC); a collection of poems about Mize's life growing up in Baltimore, his experiences in Vietnam, and speak to the riot and looting in Baltimore in 2015 and the aftermath with all its violence in the city since titled, "My Long Journey In Baltimore," (Dorrance Publishing Co. Pittsburgh, PA); and his latest work in 2021 titled "Baltimore...A City Besieged," in which Mize takes us on a poetic tour of Baltimore and provides us with a chilling account of what life is like for Baltimore's residents with over 300 homicides in the last six years. more…

All Lawerence E. Mize poems | Lawerence E. Mize Books

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