I was doing a funeral in Cheyenne, Oklahoma. It was time for the service to start and a person walked up and handed me a five page poem….five pages! Now, don’t get me wrong….I can appreciate a good poem now and then. But I never just take it on myself to just go and read some poetry. Come to think of it, I never read poetry. Nothing personal to you poets out there….I just don’t do it. This particular poem was penned by a good friend of mine, Jim Merrick. On the back of the last page Jim wrote me a short note; “Andy, this poem is done in a forte to forte roll.” Yeah, ……that’s exactly what I thought! What in the world is a forte to forte roll??!  I had absolutely no idea! He obviously thought I knew a lot more about poetry than I actually did. I didn’t even have time to read through the poem before the family came down the aisle to be seated.

Well, it came the time for the ‘dreaded’ poem. To say I was a little nervous doesn’t even come close to what I was feeling! It was pretty rough at the start but I kind of got in rhythm with it and made it through all five pages. It was a great poem and had a great message to it, as well. But I was never as glad to be done with something as I was that dang poem. So, just for future reference, if you’re thinking of having me read a poem at some kind of function, you might want to keep it on the, “Roses are red, violets are blue”, variety. And, just remember……I don’t do all that much poetry!