I think it's a mix of all of the above, Prema. It's funny but alot of the poems that I have shared with others, they generally had an impact on them that I would say was positive. I think poems have a way of saying that we all share similiar feelings in regards to things, far better than prose. I don't think it's so much as being afraid of myself. I am quite comfortable with who I am. It's more of an uncomfortableness because it would be showing who I am and my innermost feelings/thoughts to the rest of the world. It would almost be like having one's diary published, lol. I probably would consider it more if I had more opportunities to continue writing poetry but those opportunities have become very limited since having my children. I have a couple books that I have worked on sporadically over the past couple years and even that gets difficult because I tend to get interrupted every couple minutes by a "mommy!!!" As a result, only a little gets written at a time and poetry is next to impossible.

Hee hee, you sound like my mother (and that's not a bad thing). She has said many of the same things in the past and the fact that I don't write as much as she would like bothers her.

Stephanie

In every man there is something wherein I may learn of him, and in that I am his pupil.--Ralph Waldo Emerson