** Images For Use By Upgraded+ Only ** Greetings bstrotter ! I'm Jacquiebee, and I noticed your poem on the Public Review page, and thought this a great time to Welcome you to Writing.Com!!! I hope you are enjoying our 14th annual celebration. This review is also for a celebration contest sponsored by our senior moderators. It was a pleasure to read "Invalid Item"  therefore I would like to offer to you my thoughts and impressions for you to keep or discard at your discretion. I hope my comments encourage.
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GENERAL
Hi Bill, I want you to know what a joy it was to read your humorous poem. This is funny because well-meaning folks around us will sometimes advise us in ways that have the potential for being good for us; but this beneficial advice can lack clarity and direction. You make a great point, and that it's great to have a hobby, but that's an enormous area that one could potentially spend all their days in search of the right one. For me, the theme is one of focus and determination. We need to be able to get introspective and really think about what we enjoy, and what matters to us. I think you have leaned in the right direction because your writing is a treat.

CONVENTION
This reads like a limerick which is perfect with your meter of six to nine. With near perfect end line rhyme, with this quatrain, you tell a humorous story about being counseled to take a direction in your life, which contains no real direction. Herein lies the blessing of writing. We can always write about our feelings which can turn into a story, poem, article, essay or monologue. As long as we can put pen to paper, or mouth to harmonica (as it were); then we have true expression which brings joy and focus to our life. Therefore, as a writer, writing is what will help bring fulfillment.

WHAT I SEE
You seem like a man with a great sense of humor and that is a marvelous gift. You might want to consider checking out the Muse Masters Poetry Group  . I am fairly new to poetry, but I can tell you this group is perfect for poets in all phases of writing. It's also a great way to meet other poets and gain encouragement and skills to further your craft. I rated your poem because there is nothing I would want to see changed; it is full of personality and life experience.

FAVORITE LINEUse a few lines of the poem and tell the author why it's great.
"But I got crimson on me collar
and yellow on me shoe." I laughed when I read this because it's a humorous picture of someone attempting something new that really doesn't fit their idea of fun. Someone else may have stopped when the crimson hit their collar, and said "Forget it!" But you continued and let the yellow hit your shoe, hilarious. Nicely done.

CLOSING THOUGHT
bstrotter , thank you for sharing your life experience with us. I chuckled as I considered your wonderful ability to bring out the humor in a situation that might frustrate some even to the brink of insanity. Thank you for showing us how to not take ourselves too seriously. The main idea here for me is to continue to write no matter what, because I know something good will come of it. I look forward to reading more of your writing.