LILLIE MAE

I would never say that Lillie-Mae

Was what you might describe as a raving beauty.

Yet, she did have something very special

Because almost everybody was a friend of hers.

I suppose I most likely loved her, but

Only in the same way that I loved my sister.

Actually, she was a sort of sister.

She was one of the very few girls I talked to.

The last time I ever actually saw her

Was going up along side Steve and Thomas’s alley.

We called it that, but I don’t think

It was actually officially named so.

Unfortunately, she was nursing a broken heart.

She had fallen in love with a married man

Not knowing he was married until

He dropped her like she might be poison.

She was crying very softly as I neared.

So, I offered my shoulder and arm

On which she could unburden her battered heart,

Breaking out in heart-rendering sobs as I held her.

Some five minutes later, we started to walk

And to talk until she was finally in control.

I gave her a kiss and a big, tight hug and left.

Shortly after, she left for Wisconsin where

She became an old maid schoolteacher.

But she became such a top notch one,

That many of her children never forgot her.

She is gone now, yet I still remember her.

/0 Comments/by

THE RIVER

I am again in that river valley

If only in my spirit soul.

The call of the river is so irresistible

I have felt it in my bones all of my life.

The river seems to flow through my very soul.

Here, feel the smooth silkiness of its flow.

 

Deep pools, shallow draws and swift running ways

Reflecting a glorious sky, moon and stars.

All of its hillside borders covered with leaves.

 

Hidden from all but my fellow river lovers

Are glorious flowers and tasty plants to eat.

Blueberry, bleeding hearts, violets, apple blossoms and

May flowers, dandelions, Indian pinks, daffodils.

So many flowers, I can’t name them all, but there

In deeply hidden glens, grow spearmint and peppermint.

I scent the air as the leaves are crushed.

 

Take me back, oh, my soul to that river course.

Let me once again regain the sheer ecstasy

Of a youth, long since lost in utter foolishness.

Once more, let me stand on the shores and

Smell the heaven-sent perfume of my river way.

 

Nightfall seemed to accentuate the spell of music–

The evening train going somewhere west at dusk

Sounded its whistle with such a lonesome wail

It seemed to beckon me to go along to faraway places.

Downstream, the Bessemer furnace lit up the skies

In a fiery orange-red flame every hour

As it cleared its throat with a storm of air.

And when the Dixie Belle played its calliope,

The music bounded from hilltop to hilltop

With such glorious musical tones

It made me feel transported to distant cities.

 

And nothing could be better than a moonlit swim,

Drifting with the slow-moving river current,

And the love spoken back and forth in boats

Oared by star-smitten young lovers being close.

 

That’s all so far away now I can only

Picture it in my restless dreams after midnight.

 

 

 

 

/0 Comments/by

MONSTER?

Clear, clean swiftly flowing waters

Beneath which lay a fearful darkness

Where perhaps some strange fearful beast lay

Could one enter, not to ever leave?

Cowards would not dare attempt this stream.

From where will come the needed strength

To conquer the creature in that dark?

Bound so to the bosom had been this lad,

Afraid to venture in, impelled to try

Till his fate changed when two older brothers

Intervened, led him into this stream

Far out to where that fearful beast might be

Then stepped away from the frightened boy

Not too far for a quick return

But far enough to force our hero’s hand.

Looking down and all about the lair

Nowhere could he see any monster lurking there.

Joyfully, he leaped to the water’s surface

And began to swim as though he always could.

His monster had been an innate fear

Of failing to swim alone without helping hands.

Only now did the summer belong to him

As he swam and splashed with such quiet joy

Because his beast had been that inner fear

Of never learning how to swim alone.

 

 

/0 Comments/by

A SATURDAY NIGHT BATH

Why do I have to take a Saturday night bath?

Friday would be much better for us,

Never anything to do on Friday nights.

Saturday night everybody is always there

And there is something going on all the time.

Mom makes us take that bath without fail

Even if we did have a bath on Friday night.

Why?  Can someone please explain to me why?

Oh!  I bet I know why! At least I think so.

We always wear our very best clothes

Sunday morning to go to the Sunday meeting.

We always have to take them off when we get home

So they will be nice and clean when next Sunday comes.

Do you suppose that’s the real reason for baths

To make our Sunday go-to-meeting clothes last?

Gosh! I never thought of it like that before this.

That has to be the reason for the Saturday night bath.

Anyway, I hate baths whenever they make us.

When they wash my ears, it almost always hurts.

Some day, when I grow up and become a man,

I won’t ever take a bath unless I really want one.

Oh Maw! Do you have to wash my ears so hard?

/0 Comments/by

WE WERE FREE, Part One

We met in that camp at Panther in the CCC.

CCC means:  Civilian Conservation Corps.

There were camps in every state in the Union.

Ours was in southern Virginia, not that far

From the Kentucky border. As a matter of fact

The Hatfield/McCoy feud was fought out there.

That was around 1880-1900…a long time ago.

No one seems to remember what started it.

 

Anyway, we were young men from Wheeling

Thrown together by chance, or fate—

Mac and Wally and Ted and I.

We became life-long friends and together

We had such good times when we left the CCC,

Laughing like we were crazy.

We knew lots of girls,

Some as crazy as we were about having fun.

All of us, though, thoroughly enjoyed life.

We enjoyed everything we ever tried to do.

/0 Comments/by

A GRAIN OF SAND

It was past midnight on the mountain top.

Starlight from a thousand million stars above

Brightened the land with a silver gray.

Every leaf reflecting a drop of light.

So too tall trees became spears of silver gray.

Ghostly shadows stalked about the earth

As one lone figure moved out into the scene

From a group of nearby small wooden cabins,

Walked a few steps and then stopped

As though suddenly aware of the sky above.

Perhaps this thought went through his mind:

Could there be another blue green planet

Somewhere in that massive group of stars?

A grain of sand blown on the winds

Through endless space to one ideal spot

In which a new life would then evolve.

Could we be the only bit of solar dust

Which we call civilized life?

Are we truly civilized, is it truly life?

Does true life take another form or style?

Will we ever know the truth of our universe

Or will it always remain a question mark?

 

/0 Comments/by

TO MY LOVE

Any time I am near to you

I feel as if I want you to hold me

As tight as you can so I can feel safe.

When you hold me tight, my world feels safe.

My heart beats in turn with yours.

Every part of me feels so warm.

My whole body seems to quiver fancifully.

Take time to kiss me so slowly, that

I can feel each curve in your lips.

Take hold of my hands and do not let go.

I need to feel safe in your love.

You are like life itself to me, O, Love!

Please love me all the days of my life.

 

/0 Comments/by

MEADOW MEMORY

Though the fence spoke “stay out”

That meadow was far too inviting

On this fresh bright morning in Spring

The grass was knee deep here and there

With a springy softness to its earth

In a clear spot, lying face down

I saw the tiniest flowers I ever saw

The sunlight made the leaves bright and green

Then just inside a wooded grove across

A field of bleeding hearts stopped me quick

I know not how long I tarried there

But the world seemed to fill with joy

I press that memory into my heart

That I might revisit it from time to time

And now, you also share my memory

/0 Comments/by

WALK INTO THE WILD WITH ME

Walk into the wild with me

Animals in here are shy indeed.

Some are hidden by size alone.

Now stay and visit for a while.

Above all else, please, be quiet,

As nature nearly always whispers here.

Tree leaves rustle ever so softly

As water runs by in musical tones.

Birds aloft are constantly chirping.

Then, somewhere, a tree creaks then cracks

To break the silence with a thud.

A different sound announces the presence

Of an animal, noisily slaking its thirst.

The sunlight, in peeking through the trees

Stripes all of the air in the glen

And dapples every bit of ground below.

A squirrel appears, gazes warily about

Then quickly flies off to a tree.

And while we are walking though the glen,

A few mint leaves are crushed

Sharpening each and every breath we take.

Wildflowers all about leave a perfume,

Reminding us of our perennial love affair.

/0 Comments/by

THE GLORY

Perhaps God had something special in mind

When he granted America so much in richness.

A mountain range of iron ore, almost inexhaustible coal

veins.

Minerals in great quantities in every state.

Ground so fertile, it grows more than any place elsewhere.

Forests so great they boggle the mind with trees.

Places so beautiful, only God could have produced.

 

Yosemite Valley, Grand Canyon of the Colorado!

Lake C’oer D’Alene; vast fields of California poppies

Where only a desert was; yet such small delights

Lovely patches of violets, a mountainside of rhododendrons

Blowing gorgeous colors of the rainbow as the wind waves

A holy place in the Sequoia forest in which to pray

A waterfall so high and narrow, the mountain separated

So that waterfall could reach the goal it sought

A place called Bryce Canyon, so achingly beautiful

I should write a poem about that place alone.

A river gorge, looking like some gigantic stage

On which to present majestic plays

Waterfall blowing across a cliff face: a bride’s veil

Especially when it reflects the setting sun.

And five great lakes to mark a border blessed in peace.

I don’t know what God has in mind for us

But, I sure wish I could live long enough to see.

 

 

/0 Comments/by