Would you have had the guts to do this as a child, I wouldn't have. Care to comment or critique my verse?

L1, V3 has one extra beat - 'towel' is really 2 syllables, not 1. (Else it would be 'toul'.) L8, V3 - They'd keep us safe behind closed door. Or, They'd keep us locked behind closed door, perhaps.

Yours has a happier aspect than my own 'reminiscent' poem... Halcyon Days The time hangs heavy on my hands as I think back on bygone days When in fair childhood's far-off lands I played beneath Sol's golden rays. I thought myself immortal then and never spared a thought for death For I was just a lad of ten, but now I'm old and short of breath. With little time in front of me my gaze turns backwards to the past And days of glory do I see of happy times I thought would last.

But Time, the one who mocks us all, will have her way as years pass by We are but captives in Time's thrall and 'tis appointed that we die. But in my mind I'm young once more, surrounded by my childhood friends And things are as they were before in mystic time that never ends. There's Tom and Jim and Joe and Bill, restored to youth once more in dreams We play again upon that hill which rang with laughs and joyous screams.

They all grew up and went their way; to well-paying jobs and loving wives.

It may be my problem and not the poem, but I found this a bit of a stiff read. When I read through a second time, it flowed somewhat better, but the first time through I had trouble reading "With fingers holding up torn frocks." "To venture on past bush and fern," "If parents found out where we'd played" and more lines I can't remember that were tricky, BUT I am a poor reader, so it may have been me. Certainly a sweet subject, but whether it is you or me I didn't feel free while reading it, I felt a little cramped.

It's probably me.

I cant really gove you an answer,but what I can give you is a way to a solution, that is you have to find the anglde that you relate to or peaks your interest. A good paper is one that people get drawn into because it reaches them ln some way.As for me WW11 to me, I think of the holocaust and the effect it had on the survivors, their families and those who stood by and did nothing until it was too late.