One Small Thought … Poems from Ohio

John C. Sparks

One Small Thought …

Poems from Ohio

Poems are small thoughts

Neatly preserved as dried leaves For minds yet to come…

By John C. Sparks 1947—

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One Small Thought … Poems from Ohio

Copyright © 2013 John C. Sparks

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form for commercial use, except for the inclusion of brief quotations in a review, without permission in writing from the author. In the case of noncommercial use in classrooms (public or private), churches, synagogues, and various helping ministries; all poems may be freely used and reprinted without permission provided the work is properly credited as follows: Poem from the collection One Small Thought authored by John C. Sparks. Grateful acknowledgement is given to the various publications and websites—both secular and Christian—in which many of these poems have appeared. All scripture quotes are from the traditional King James Version of the Holy Bible. Front and back cover photographs taken by Curtis J. Sparks. Front photograph is a March view of the Greene County Courthouse located in Xenia, Ohio

Preliminary PDF-Only Edition

Published by Sparrow-Hawke †reasures Xenia, Ohio 45385

Produced in the United States of America

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Dedication

I would like to dedicate One Small Thought to Carolyn Sparks— My wife, lover, and life journey partner for 44 years.

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Table of Contents

Introduction 10 A Chronology in Verse 11 1996 The Fifth Horseman 12 Less than Dogs 13

In Memory of Glue 14 I Hear God’s Trumpet 15

1997 Wordshop 16 This Father’s Lament 16 February Flu 17 Love Is… 17 ADD Attack 18 Mixed Images 19 Bookcraft 20 Hell’s Survivor 21 Dusty School Bells 22 Lion’s Meat 22 Come Fade with Me 23 A Song of Autumn 24 Burning Bush 24 1998 A Quest for Soul 25 Tides of March 26 Spring Coming 27 New Math 28 Golden Whispers 29 Someday 30

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1999 The Lie 31 Snowdrops 32

Generation Gap 33 Significance 34 Ancient Ways 35 Winter Vignette 35 Affinity 36 2000 Into God Partly 37 Passage 37 Of Years with No Santa 38 Echoes of Thoughts Passing 39 Reunion Rising 40 Twister 41 Legend 42 Blessed are the Final Duets 43 2001 A Grief Estranged 44

Gray-Sky Geese 45 Moon Glider 45 O Icarus… 46 A Season for Calculus 47 Me to Santa 48 Eagle Rising 49

2002 Outpost 50 A Sixties Valentine 51 To be Military 52

Wholly Other 53 From Earth with Love 54 August Vignette 55 Back Again 55 Peace Prayer 56

2003 Inner Star 56

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2004 Transition 57 Newton’s Whit 58 Bloodline 59 Sight Unseen 60 Anticipation 61 2005 Hoar Frost 61

Ode to Order 62 October Flow 63 Passing On 63 Eternal State 64 Offering 65 Where Were We? 66 Swirl 66 The Many Hearts of Christmas 67 2006 Quiet Assent 68

Fairy Dust 68 In Transit 69 Adaptation 70 Much to Avoid 71 Desecration 72 Roundel 73 Metal-Star Remembrances 73 Euclid’s Beauty Revisited 74 Bohemian Moments 75 November Woods 76 Harvest Mow 76 Just a Poem 77 Supplication 78 Hey Jesus 78 Forever Come Swiftly 79

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2007 Adam’s Apple 80 Quiet Custom 80 Snow Day 81 Stirrings 81 The Goose 82 Symbiosis 82 The Oarsman 83 Renewal 83 May Is 84 Counter 84 Away 85 Descent 85 Future 86 Of Calls to Come 86 Stew Pot 87 Naiveté 88 Golden Fall 89 Equinox 90 Mousey 91 Awe 91 Embers 92 Lightfall 92 Span 93 2008 Pictures 93

Mix 94 Glaze 94 Awakening 95 Is 96 Cars 97 Insight 97 Church Supper 98 Hot Air 98 October Gold 99 Ports of Call 99 We Two 100 Christmas Lost 100

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2009 A Long Now Ago 101 March 1 101 Original Dilemma 102 Prophecy 2009 102 Repose 103 Mop Up 103 Vows 104 August Dew 105 High Five 105 Booed Out 106 Coming to Terms 107 Bipolar 107 Watcher 108 2010 Bus Kids 109

Hero 109 Rain Man 110 March 110 Droplet 111 August 111 One 112 The 112 October Blue 113 Afterglow 113 Through the Glass Darkly 114 2011 Welcome 114

Linage 115 Come 116 On Darwin 116 Time Machine 117 Nothing Personal 118 Treed 118 War Baby 119 Meltdown 119 One Last Test 120 Rise and Fall 121 Color Me Fall 122

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2012 God Speed 123 Quiet Honor 124 Wear Out 125 Out of Time 125 Heavenly Quest? 126 I Got Wheels 127 Lunar Farewell 128 Where Faith Begins 129 Uncle Pop 130 2013 Apex 131 Other Books by the Author 132

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Introduction

One Small Thought is a chronological arrangement of selected poems written during the years 1996 through early 2013. Topics and moods vary from faith to doubt, gravity to hilarity, secular to sacred, fundamental to eclectic, and, finally, sarcastic to reverential. Many poems have Ohio as the central theme: its ancient and pioneer past, magnificent aerospace history—a childhood passion—and quiet four-season beauty, all of which provides an ongoing palette for thoughtful introspection. Needless to say, other poems are occasional in nature—written in honor or homage to either a friend or member of my beloved family. Brevity is the one common characteristic of the majority of poems contained within this anthology. Few poems exceed twenty-five or thirty lines in length, hence a fortunate appropriateness of the word Small in the book’s title. Another common characteristic that I have tried hard to retain, though some topics of expression may be controversial, is a measured civility throughout.

I hope that you, the reader, will enjoy this verbal kaleidoscope of 166 poems—down-selected from a pool of, perhaps, 400 or more. My own and my family’s continual prayer is that the contents within these pages will be both a comforting blessing to your heart and an enlightening challenge to your thoughts.

John C. Sparks Xenia, Ohio January 2013

“That’s one small step for man,

One giant leap for mankind.” July 20, 1969

Neil Armstrong, native Ohioan

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A Chronology

In Verse

Watching Sputnik I Change Our Lives During One November Evening, 1957

In Memoriam

Mr. James Stanley, former Xenia High School English teacher and football coach, who introduced me to

Carl Sandburg and “Big Shoulders” in 1962

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The Fifth Horseman Come and see our ancient foe prance and frolic throughout the earth! Tears streaming, I watched as Satan's beautiful seductive masterpiece, Riding a stunning white horse full of dead man's bones, Deliciously galloped over unsuspecting masses and conceited highborn! I sobbed, "Do not be deceived!", but no one heeded still small voices! All were so eager to welcome enticing promises of new world orders, And to embrace grandiose doctrines of man born in utter darkness. Trembling, I fearfully awaited the words and events that would follow. Come and see the aftermath wrought by the ultimate pied piper! I looked and observed wars and rumors of wars in full flower. All were riding blood red horses scourging the earth with gladness. Falling, I numbly awaited the words and events that would follow. Come and see the collapse of progressive social orders big and small! I shuttered as fierce black horses invaded once proud lands with ease, Delivering chaotic gifts of famine, pestilence, and economic despair. Mourning, I bitterly awaited the words and events that would follow. Come and see the final judgment of wicked Babylonian insanity! I raised my head to observe thin pale horses feeding on human carnage, And Lucifer laughing as Christ-less souls sank into hell to join the beast Moaning, I pleaded with my host, "Please sir, no more horses!" A gentle voice beckoned, "You must come and see this one last sight." Eyes slowly opening, I saw a magnificent White Horse coming from afar. Terrified, I screamed, "Not again!", as the Fifth Horseman approached. But Lo! I beheld a most glorious form, the Rider called Faithful and True! Leaping with song and joy, I immediately proclaimed, "Thank God for his horseman and the restoration He brings! Thank God for the Lamb and the Lion’s eternal reign! Praise God for He comes to make things new again!" February 1996 Long-line Free Verse Revelation 6 and 19

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Less Than Dogs! What kind of dog? Tosses babies from their beds, Beats and shatters little heads, Gloating at the sight of red! Tell me, what kind of dog?! What type of dog? Dashes tots upon the floor, Slams bodies against a door, Breaks wee bones and pants for more! Tell me, what type of dog?! What manner of dog? Relishes pain it inflicts On tiny infants just for kicks With leaden pipes and wooden sticks! Tell me, what manner of dog?! What breed of dog? Takes pleasure in these loathsome things, Sound the alarm and let it ring, Bolt the doors! To our children cling! Oh, tell me, what breed of dog?! An American home breed... April 1996 Custom Five-line Stanzas To the Lord of the Flies

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In Memory of Glue One out of many is the noble quest As the boy positions each plastic part; Let there be structure on top of this desk Built with a labor direct from the heart! One thing is needful before he can start Preserving the union when task is through, An item with the name of airplane glue! I remember my childhood some years back, Those days gone by when an order prevailed. We begged the system to cut us some slack And hoped for a break whenever we failed, Yet the game was clear, "Expect to be nailed." Blind hate stood up, a fact known to be true, But standing much taller was common glue.

Something has departed with telltale sign, A substance permitting walks after dark; Me has defeated we and ties that bind, And hunter stalks prey in the public park. Grieve not for shelter in a fifties ark; Not all was well and worthy of lament; Rather mourn the loss of social cement… Nations arise, young waves upon the sea, Swelling up...on the power of the whole; Initial bonds break and they cease to be, Falling mist-like into a captor's bowl. Oh, never fall victim to wicked foe Free land saluting the star-spangled blue; Pray for the return of national glue! April 1996 Rhyme Royal To the baby boomers, who, as a generation, have experienced a great loss.

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I Hear God's Trumpet! I can hear God’s trumpet blowing That beckons from afar, “Come hither to Me my pilgrim And leave your broken jar.” Weep not about my mortal flesh, Life's journey nearly spent, But look upon your chosen path As talent Christ has lent! Does account brim with interest, Two, three, or seven times? Or does your vessel lay empty, Spilled out—now left just dimes? Travel I must to Heaven's home Released from earthly pain. Are you prepared to do as such When shell to moss is lain? July 1996 Ballad In memory of Marvin Beam

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Wordshop Gifted men with brain in their hand: They fix and do, plumb and restore, Wire the barn, take care of the land, Paint with no spill, and build a door. My Father-in-law has such skill As did Dad, but his son never will... Yet I have this shop; please come in. Words pour out, so pardon my mess. Watch a head, things dangling within Or misplaced; at times, we still guess. Four poems crafted, not just one, I and the muse wording till done. January 1997 Stave of Six Sparrowgrass Poetry Prize Winner: $10.00 This Father's Lament My disdain has filled you, for this, I cry, Life's fleeting waters now over the wall, My ability gone—was mine when small— To lift you up so you could feel the sky. Your far-away voice, and I dare not pry Nor try to restrain a path's destined fall For fear of the choice to silence our call, Leaving me helpless, this heart in a sigh. Short is the season to bond with cement, And brief is God's time to mold or affect, But long are the days that we will lament The loss of our chance to guide or direct. Grief to a father, his moment now spent, The son's world to harvest—a dad, reject! February 1997 Petrarchan Sonnet

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February Flu Old Jan' has come and gone at last, The month with cold and bitter blast, That chills my ears and bites a nose, Nips the fingers and numbs the toes. Yes, Feb' has brought the longer sun, Chocolate hearts, and rhymes of fun, Yet, something else has followed too, Those aches and pains by Mister Flu. The cock has crowed, head a bustin', Coughs and weezin'; grab the Tussin. Down two spoons of this nasty stuff; Go back to bed; you're feeling rough! Your week drags on, a dreadful spell; You wished to die but since got well. Ah, health returns to limb and hand; Six days I crawled, and now, I stand! February 1997 Simple Couplets To the flu, forever with us Love Is… Love is….forgiveness amidst life’s sorrow, Her rise with the fall, his up with the down, A willingness to commit your tomorrow To other alone—bring passion or frown! Love is the promise, two lip’s eager sound, A quick leap to heaven per morning’s sun And showing at night when daylight is done. February 1997 Rhyme Royale

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ADD Attack I wish as I wander rushing about, That my senses would clear, come to a stop; That the sound wouldn't pound, ears wouldn't ring, Beating my brain with a ping that won't die; That the sound wouldn't pound, ears wouldn't ring, Draining my brain with the ping that won't die! Harangue, the harangue, I've got to escape, Sound slamming the door, your voices grow shrill! Coming, the grating, coming, still coming, Coming, rasping, the raping, still coming, Buffeting, buffeting—sound weakens me. Help...starting to drift...must find a cocoon... To my room, my room and shut out the lights. Get away from jangle! Jumble! The jimble! So confused, more confused, nerves now melting, Spiraling, melting—please find me some rest! To my sleep, saving sleep, a sleep with no sound, A sleep with no sight, no words whirlin' round, Where I can lie still—and hide underground. April 1997 Unrhymed Iambic Pentameter To all who suffer from Attention Deficit Disorder

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Mixed Images Heads there are that sleep on our wall, Portraits of those whose bond is blood, Babes first shown as father's new bud Then clothed in gray with eyes that fall Once they have lived their fire or flood. Some have gone forth to find their rest; Some still wear wide shoulders of youth; Some are called saints; others, uncouth, And most hid bones which serve to test The choice to cleave—come lies or truth. Bring back the years, give joy or shame, Each frame, one door that sends a face To urge my thoughts to view then trace Love's stream of life—no need of blame— That ties this house thru time and place. Have roots decayed, laid down to dust? Has something died, no strength to last? My need for space has spurned the past That hung these halls with fear and trust That words destroyed—too hot—too fast! June 1997 Quintilla Published: Penwood Review To generations lost and found, ignored and forgiven

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Bookcraft To skip a stone when I was young Across the pond to banks of green Carried my mind to shores unseen Except in books where pages flung Visions abroad to roam and dream. For words and titles spoke of lands, Distant mountains, or ancient times Conveying scenes of foreign climes, Covered by woods or endless sands, To one whose piggy held just dimes. No gold required to board your craft That swept the skies, the seven seas Come sunny days and gentle breeze Or fearsome nights with bitter draft— All trips flown well with playful ease. In County Greene now rests a place Which held the wonders of our earth— Chartered then built before my birth— Carnegie’s heart, where I would pace Booked-up rows, wee aisles of mirth! July 1997 Quintilla In memory of the old Greene County (Ohio) Library

The evening breeze fills August skies with mellow wings

That uplift my soul

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Hell's Survivor The tired old warrior sat across the gray table, For many decades, freedom's champion When curtains of iron draped the earth... My greeting. He stood, tears welling, and We embraced the deep embrace of soul. Our bond, our love: how—chemistry Only God understands—did it come about? For he, still the Latvian accent after fifty years, Had survived Russians, Nazis, relocation camps, and Eager fists made in the USA: Those Detroit-high-school Toughs who sought for sport the scrappy refugee kid Having only a few words, his mother, and a steamer trunk. Welcome to America! By contrast, I, this sheltered well-fed post-war Ohio native, Must have personified strength of life present as I slowly patted the back of my weakened friend: So much my senior—once mentor—and now...my brother. Love held tight. His remaining hair Clung proudly like beleaguered soldiers To a scalp yellowed and aged by poisonous dyes, The harsh aftermath of a chemical invasion, Mustered to fight his new enemy: One small fleshy mass, plum size— Power to waste the human body Equal to any concentration camp Ever designed by man or the devil. I thought, God, spare him from hell, For he has seen it Too many times... September 1997 Free Verse Published: Penwood Review In memory of Aivars Petersons

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Dusty School Bells School days and apple trees, September comes again, Bringing back fond memories Of times about to end… Times of kids and mittens small As both walked out the door, Times of tests and baffled looks Soon to be no more. September 1997 Alternating Quatrains

Lion's Meat The shadows of youth are all that remain, My vague memories cold now bittersweet, Days when my head was inflated and vain, Times that I moan for and wish to repeat: Not for small pleasures departed for good, Not the lithe beauty, nor macho physique, But to lock into place in times that I could Skills vital today, the things one can keep. No tools, no craft, no competence to sell... These, the foundation of life's future years, If had! bring assurance—happiness as well— Of growth past forty instead of these tears. For skills offer hope, a chance to compete— Life as a hunter…instead of the meat… September 1997 Shakespearean Sonnet Opportunities lost in school

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Come Fade With Me We—the two—were young once upon... You, my flower, then full in bloom. We fussed and giggled and gave it all— Two hearts, our souls...yes, the bodies— To God to preserve...and He did for several decades. We never noticed, nor cared, nor discussed Those fleeting years and effects on our youth— No longer. Growing, fading together, we were love's reflection, One image in the other, hugging a time...called Now. Oblivious to the wrinkles, fallen stature, Or thinning hair, We leaped to the music of the other's soul, And danced within...just as we did In memories—still clear— Of white dresses and tuxedos. I have since laid you to rest, Your petals shriveled by a disease That robbed me of my Now, And your grave will only mark... A time called Past. October 1997 Free Verse Published: Penwood Review Till death does us part

Fading leaves quiver With ornate and brief display—

Hungry ground below.

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A Song of Autumn Fall sweeps early with a chill in the air, Eager to banish the harsh summer sun That struggles to keep the bold July flair June first displayed as her vigor begun. For September declares a gentler time When light humbles itself on softer rays, Filtering past leaves of frostbitten lime, Forming rivulets of gold dipped in haze. October calls forth bright maples of red, Canopies of yellow, russet, and brown; Fresh colors arise, now adorn my head, ‘Til all goes away, returns to the ground. Young zephyrs diminish, lessen their flow; Brevity's season, life's tones...then to sow. October 1997 Shakespearean Sonnet

To ministry, in any form Burning Bush Burning bush bright with fire, Men watch you from afar; Passion deep or Satan's pyre, Does touch say who you are? Yes, I am leery of your flame That snares the weakened eye, Brief union once without a name From hell—gift-wrapped in sky. November 1997 Alternating Quatrains To all marriages held in honor

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A Quest for Soul What meaning has thought, This miraculous sense of self, Generated and somehow contained In a liter-sized sphere, Which becomes my I, A continuous personalized witness Of the universe and from the same? Sealed within the flesh, It moves as I move Both spatially— Room to room, place to place— And temporally: Well bound to the arrow of time. Yet, somehow, it and it alone Fails to grow old as it hides away In the quiet of my own being, Particularly noticeable In those transparent moments When it breaks with the outside world. Could the resulting stillness, A pure benign awareness, Be...that quantity called soul And one's natural bridge... To eternity? March 1998 Free Verse Published: Penwood Review

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Tides of March March brings wild and turbulent days As strong winds whip across its skies; Galloping clouds come shield the rays Brought by the sun per gallant stays, But all too short as brief warmth dies. Light gives way to the damp and cold As rain sets in and numbs my hands; Mixed with snow, it pummels the gold, Changing new thoughts back into old, And drives the mind to harsher stands. Strife and woe now subdues my heart Once aflame with God's blissful touch; Demons of night make good their dart Which poisons faith, each bit and part— Not left one scrap, one speck as such. Yet faith rebounds though tides repeat, The ebb and flow throughout my years, On fire for months then blows the sleet When ill-timed chills remove one's heat, Reaping the blues and ice-formed tears. March 1998 Quintilla Published: Penwood Review

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Spring Coming Windowsills and daffodils, Spring greets my room again; The golden sun has now begun To warm my soul within. Gone are days of hidden rays As blue returns to sky; The robins soar above my door On wings both low and high. Bring a new delightful view; Let moods begin to leap. If Jesus parts resentful hearts, His season we shall keep! March 1998 Even-rhymed Quatrains with In-line Echoes

Noise covers the soul With impervious armor,

Creating a floor Upon which our senses prance,

Mute to the ‘Abba’ below.

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New Math Take one newborn, American male, And insert into Today’s world. Add seven years Of parental strife Summing to Divorce at age nine. Divide a house By removing one Natural father, Replacing with Step-father, ex-con. Separate the Broken pieces By 1000 miles. Subtract hope. Add the opposite. Take away love And sense of worth. Again, add the Opposite. Multiply By four more Turbulent years And reckon the Outcome: 25 rounds 10 wounded 05 dead 10000 mourners 01 nation stunned The first lesson... April 1998 Free Verse Published: Penwood Review

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Golden Whispers The evening drifts with its wings, Birds of air, small buzzing things That dot the placid twilight sky As setting gold enchants this eye. Soon, a purple clothes the sphere, While gentle chirps I start to hear In a rocker’s chair, back and forth; Back and forth, tilt south to north. Rhythmic feet stay glued in place; My heart can not this time retrace. For God is here, His peaceful way, To swiftly rise would heaven slay… August 1998 Simple Couplets

Twin sirens excite The mind to opposite shores

As rationale stirs To embrace a destiny

And live out a consequence.

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Someday I wish I could wiggle Like a fish, or Soar high in the sky As a bird, perhaps Glide over the ground Like a fleet-footed deer, all In effortless play. Masters they are Of land, sea, and air, Movement so graceful And movement so fair... My motion so awkward, I can but walk. But, I have a Father With whom I can talk, And some, some day, I shall lie down, But then I shall rise With a leap and a bound On promised wings, And... His creatures astound. September 1998 Rhyming Free Verse Published: Penwood Review

Haze thickens the air As dawn struggles to muster

The warm July sun.

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The Lie I must confess with humbled sigh That years ago I told a lie, So I could smile and comfort buy For my feelings. But cunning words are slow to die— As misgivings... The thing at first was small in cast, About three puffs of twisted blast, A clever dodge then spoken fast So wrong might hide And stay below in caverns past Where secrets bide. But covers fell and brought to light The foul deceit within that night And nothing said could make it right Once actions spoke; Now I am bound—forever tight!— To sorrow’s yoke... February 1999 Burns Stanza

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Snowdrops The remnants Of the snow Lie on the ground, Leaving the brown Still there— The same. And virtues Of the heart Without the Cross, Count them a loss To human fame. February 1999 Minimalism

March brings damp shivers Beneath the wind-blown jackets

Where spring teases moods Well swirled in snow-speckled grey

With a dash of noon-day sun.

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Generation Gap The dead sleep well dusted With several feet of All-American topsoil Thrown over their silent mouths. Under the late May sun, Laughter and long-winded speeches, Propelled by smug lips, Skim lightly over the manicured grassy surface. Deep below, I can imagine The earth straining to form dew Around numerous dry sockets Holding once-proud eyes, Eyes that confidently met the Enemy in France, Germany, and a Thousand-and-one battlefields In this century alone. These same must weep (Or worms weep for them) As bombs explode, bullets tear, And citizens die in 1999— Killed not with weapons Brandished by Foreign invaders Or terrorists, But slaughtered Through the hands Of grandchildren Those honored Never knew... June 1999 Free Verse Published: Penwood Review Columbine: Dedicated to all families who have lost loved ones due to violence in our nation’s schools. Postscript 2007: Virginia Tech; Postscript 2012: Sandy Hook

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Significance

The wisp in my glass on a clear winter’s night Is home for a billion wee glimmers of light, Each crystal itself one faraway dream With faraway worlds surrounding its gleam. And locked in the realm of each tiny sphere Is all that is met through an eye or an ear; Too, all that is felt by a hand or our love, For we are but whits in the sea seen above. Such scales immense make wonder abound And make a lone knee touch the cold ground. For what is this man that he should be made To sing to The One Whose breath heavens laid? July 1999 Simple Couplets Published: Penwood Review

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Ancient Ways

Out of mystery came all that is known: The unfolding of ages, space, and mind; Great creatures of every shapeable kind Alive today and those bedded in stone. Before any time, God spoke when alone And genesis sprang from Love unaligned Who tidied the flow with sentience blind To the craft hidden of orders now shown. Praise to the Author of eons and stars, Heavens and angels, things tiny and vast, Who was and is the sustaining One Voice Behind all we see thru these fragile jars— A universe formed by the First and Last With definite purpose! In this rejoice! November 1999 Petrarchan Sonnet Winter Vignette Freshly fell the snow last night And tucked our house in drifts of white, A crystal blanket to the sight Once clouds retreated with their gloom And left the cold December moon To bathe those fields beyond my room In heaven’s soft and silent light. December 1999 Mini Sonnet

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Affinity Tonight, the present millennium ends, A continuous stream some fifty generations long; And I, by way of fate, Will pass through its twentieth-century mouth. Reflecting, a bond is formed With my unknown (Great)

x-grandfather

Of 1000 AD Whose feet Stood at the source— He who had No learning, No science, No technology, No medicine, No infrastructure, No protection, No bombs, And no guarantees Whatsoever! And, somehow, I sense that “only faith” Sustained his hope… As does mine today. December 1999 Free Verse

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Into God Partly Imagine a world of Cimmerian caves Far beneath the billows and waves That gloriously dance an azure sea Where crystalline hues mix with glee. Yet down below move ghostly things Which drift alone on tethered wings Thru ebony caverns of liquid night While breakers cavort in golden light. And none did guess the splendor high— White emerald surf, sapphirine sky— Since gray was subterranean bound Buried in fathoms of flesh and ground. June 2000 Simple Couplets Passage Inward I sense Forever’s gate Waiting to spring someday, When flesh by death is cast aside, My soul flies home to stay. June 2000 Alternating Quatrain

The sun flames with light Warm and eager, but I’m not—

This hand in a chill.

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Of Years with No Santa Christmas 1958, age eleven, And I still believed in the “Force” Behind the white-bearded face— Unquestionably, way too old to nurse Such childhood fantasies! Hence, two familiar voices Bearing gifts wrapped with edification Casually and abruptly retold my truth, And the whole fragile edifice Of internal mythology That brought naive mystery, Kindness and caring To a reflective, Don Quixote type of lad Came tumbling down On a December morn dawning gray. A bleak year indeed... Late July 2000, age 52, Surely, a modern, technical mind—well linked— Would have bulldozed the wreckage decades ago! But pieces remained, Comforting pieces— To some, foolish pieces— That allowed for a fanciful ordering And ultimate vindication Of an otherwise senseless, random world. Sadly, the re-teller Has come again to instruct. For prophecy is getting fat on expectancy, Cancer is laughing at fervid prayer, And Jesus is stripping his church veneer. I climb into the Caterpillar And just sit, numbly, keys in hand. A bleak year indeed... July 2000 Free Verse Published: Penwood Review

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Echoes of Thoughts Passing These words that you peruse today Were penned some years ago, Now just a leaf within your hands Whose bough lies fallen low. Here echoes speak in fragile lines Though life has long since left, Still moving all whom listen there, Those whom these pages cleft. Each noble heart upon the earth Will soon pass thru the green— Those attributes that stir the soul No longer touched or seen. For time will circle ‘round again And shed the present day, With revolutions there and then Forgetting those whom lay. Arise O tongue and take your pen; Must valor’s speech now sow. So all who’ll walk tomorrow’s grass Will hear your thoughts below... August 2000 Ballad Stanza

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Reunion Rising When the row is culled up yonder, Who there will sink from view? Will Auntie, Uncle, Brother, Mom, Or churchlings we once knew? Or will the tiff move farther back And claim ol’ Granny too? Who spat with us while still alive, But all her fault—now true! But that was years ago, you claim, And attitudes have changed; For Jesus taught me how to walk, My passions rearranged.

Yet ‘fore you strut that pious heart, Think Sunday’s slandered pew; If whispered breath were toxic gas, You’d slay more than a few! So, how could heaven keep its name If feuds rise up as we? Since all is love and peace and good, Will bane from bliss then flee? Hence, flustered still I am when told Of this high migration. Just when will be the bickers end; When, our transformation? September 2000 Ballad Stanza Consider the Bema Seat

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Twister To witness Xenia: Four times Within seventy years Nature’s cyclonic fury hit This small Southwestern Ohio town— Three strikes in a generation… One of Biblical proportions. Thrice, the swirling devils Have descended and rendered Total and complete destruction Along each pathway Where Fujita’s Ascending scale Had blindly danced Shiva’s random steps Of tragedy and sorrow Common to all living. Likewise, thrice, Restoration was complete Along each bitter pathway Where Christ danced thereafter— Atop Shiva’s handiwork... September 2000 Free Verse Three tornadoes have hit Xenia, my hometown, within 30 years: 1974, 1989, and 2000. The 1974 tornado, an F5, was one of the largest ever in the continental Unites States. It killed 26 people, including two of my Xenia High School classmates (Class of 1965)

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Legend Tumble down Ye withered brown And take thy Frown below... To rot beneath The whitened leaf Of freshly Fallen snow. October 2000 Free Rhyme

Few left are russets Clinging to thin, snowy twigs

That snap with a puff.

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Blessed are the Final Duets 1967. My twentieth birthday. With pompous solemnity, Two gifts were ceremoniously Set before me. Unwrapped, twin books Silently presented Their respective paths, Each hinting For a single, un-revocable choice as Three pounds of mathematics Disapprovingly scowled At an equivalent weight Of discreetly pouting Bible. Masculine versus feminine, Father versus mother, North versus South— One bipolar couple Subtly vied for a restless Yet compliant young spirit. Alas, poor wisdom failed In absence of give, And Solomon had no choice But to cleave the baby! Blood ran its course as Two dying hemispheres Fought For nearly three decades… Until one small block of Neatly Imprinted marble Reintegrated the twain. November 2000 Free Verse Published: Penwood Review

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A Grief Estranged David Paints a torturous path, One through Serpentine valleys Veiled in day-long shadows Where dark hues Are thoroughly mixed By the two reappearing peaks Of anger and despair… Yet his walk Was not without A Comforter, As scripture Most firmly Declares! And even Job Had his three— Albeit fickle— Earthly companions While bearing The prolonged angst Of exhausted hopelessness! But woe to The mourner Who journeys alone— No guiding words Or promises From either God or soul— Their self-contemptuous way Paved in silence And replete With guilt. January 2001 Free Verse Published: Penwood Review

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Gray-Sky Geese Geese, they are a flyin’ Across the gray-worn sky, Silent wings a glidin’ Above my wizened eye. But though they be a fadin’ And slip away from view, They’ll soon again be comin’ When sun turns snow to dew. January 2001 Alternating Quatrain Moon Glider Flutter wing, flutter high, Black on blue, evening sky, Drifting far, looping wide, Rise again, peak and glide. Over moon now you go, Golden orb seen below, Leaving earth, back around, Skimming dew from the ground. Come and play, time to soar, Catch the light, fading hour… For soon the whisper of the tree Will call both lark and busy bee. June 2001 Couplets

45

O Icarus... I ride high... With a whoosh to my back And no wind to my face, Folded hands In quiet rest— Watching...O Icarus... The clouds glide by, Their fields far below Of gold-illumed snow, Pale yellow, tranquil moon To my right— Evening sky. And Wright...O Icarus... Made it so— Silvered chariot streaking On tongues of fire leaping— And I will soon be sleeping Above your dreams... August 2001 Free Verse Published: Penwood Review Ohio’s Wright Brothers

46

A Season for Calculus Late August Brings an end to limits, Chained derivatives, Constraints—optimized and otherwise— Boundary conditions, Areas by integrals, And long summer evenings. My equally fettered students, Who moaned continuously While under tight mathematical bondage, Will finally be released— Most with a pen-stroke of mercy... Understandably, For meandering heads just barely awake, Newton’s infinitesimal brainchild Presented no competition when pitted against Imagined pleasures faraway, And outside My basement classroom. Always the case... But, there are some, Invariably a few, Who will see a world of potential In one projected equation And opportunities stirring In the clarifying scribble... August 2001 Free Verse

X is a pronoun like he,

But more of an it than a she. So why be afraid

When that letter is made, For a number is all it can be!

47

Me to Santa When Christmas comes, I don the myth And chase the grinch away, Flying young souls to Givemeville Where greed doth rule the day... But older, I take to Kindness Town, Well carried by a sleigh, Where faith in more than an immediate me Gives hope an additional ray. September 2001 Even Quatrains

Like a forest stilled By winter’s gentle, white peace,

May Christmas keep you.

48

Eagle Rising Through tears I’ve seen the fire fall, Red flames from cruel heights; And I have seen the tired brave Work hard through torturous nights

With resolute and angered hearts Whose hands combed twisted steel For muffled hopes beneath the ash That time would soon repeal… And though I’ve seen our eagle cry And mourn her toppled nest, Her wings today rise up in strength With vengeance ne’er to rest Until this earth is rid of those Who scorn the timeless dream Of life beyond a tyrant’s grasp— Below the outstretched beam! October 2001 Ballad Stanza 9/11

Millennial fog: For the sun still battles haze,

And virtue, folly.

49

Outpost A small island Of white, Melting snow On brown grass, Fades away... Unnoticed By children, Who once frolicked In its purity; And by elders, Who once reveled In its beauty. Yellowed by passing dogs, Only a few hungry squirrels And flitting birds Still scavenge For its treasures. January 2002 Free Verse Death of Virtue?

50

A Sixties Valentine February 1964, The Beatles came In flickering black and white, Chasing away November’s Still-hanging gray On a raw, snow-blown Sunday evening— As America started To sing again... One silly, little British love song. February 2002 Free Verse JFK

51

To be Military We are an old breed in new days Stepping to proud and ancient ways: Ways of trust, blood bond, and honor; Ways of glory, promise, and valor. Duty—never a burden to scorn— Is our womb for discipline born With goal of service before the self, Collective good instead of wealth— Where pleasure known is mission won Or pain endured to save the one: One family, squad, or nation free; One land that shines from sea to sea. And whether assigned to ground or air Or deep within an ocean’s lair; Each does their best and more, still more! — Forever faithful, forever sure! This, our code, indwells the heart— Pride where death becomes a part Of life where all expect to live… Yet, each will fall to gladly give. April 2002 Simple Couplets

Beyond the sting of battle, Far beyond the cry of war

Is a world beyond our hatred And a world forevermore.

52

Wholly Other I searched for God in Christmas and found Santa, In father and found distance, In mother and found temper, In nature and found Darwin, In logic and found persuasion, In rhapsody and found orgasm, And within and found Maslov. Seven ways I searched; Seven mirrors were found, Each reflecting Man’s image… Seven portraits, Seven portals To ourselves. May 2002 Free Verse Mysteries

1 15 6 12

8 10 3 13

11 5 16 2

14 4 9 7

53

From Earth with Love Do you remember, as do I, When Neil walked, as so did we, On a calm and sun-lit sea One July, Tranquility, Filled with dreams and futures? For in that month of long ago, Lofty visions raptured all Moonstruck with that starry call From life beyond this earthen ball... Not wedded to its surface. But marriage is of dust to dust Where seasoned limbs reclaim the ground Though passing thoughts still fly around Supernal realms never found On the planet of our birth. And I, a man, love you true, Love as God had made it so, Not angel rust when then aglow, But coupled here, now rib to soul, Dear Carolyn of mine.

July 2002 Custom Quintilla 33rd Wedding Anniversary—12 July 2002

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August Vignette Full of brown and locust sound, August comes with waning noon, Faint evening deer along a row Of golden-tasseled corn aglow Above the misty shadows low. And in the pre-dawn cool is found Winter’s mighty sword and hound— Half circle much too soon… August 2002 Mini Sonnet Back Again Some ninety-nine beers, just for fun, Were taken down when I was young As innocence then, with pleasure, sung To hanging bottles on the wall, Not knowing they’d return my call… And I, today, would smash them all To save a marriage, save a son Who didn’t pass—but drank each one… August 2002 Mini Sonnet Hope is an alcoholic in remission

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Peace Prayer Please come, O Lord, into this space; Please come and fill with Holy Breath. Then, help remove from troubled ears An anxious world—its noise, its fears— The source of all revengeful tears. And this with Sacred Hush replace; Then, let Your Peace restore each face Through life—in strife—in death… August 2002 Mini Sonnet Inner Star Beyond the din and through a door, I sense the Babe of Christmastime Aglow with light forevermore Lovingly shed per Beacon sublime, Livingly spread by myth and rhyme. And with His Guide, I am renewed With thoughts of roads ne’er taken, Journeys of will where paths reviewed Lead gently from goals mistaken, Lead boldly to virtues forsaken. December 2003 Refraining Alternating Quatrains First poem after a 15-month hiatus during which time Calculus without Limits—a thirty-year-old dream—was written.

The full moon chills low On whitened glass at midnight

Dreaming of rebirth.

56

Transition August brings low and yellowed swirls And like-colored stalks in tawny fields As sun and breeze, corn and leaves Speak softly of September. For fall renumbers days to come By early chills before the dawn And sunsets cool with purpled black Above the owl and ember. Thus reminds one’s bone and flesh Of seasons soon to change, Of unseen smiles and silent laughs Well sowed in winter’s chamber. August 2004 Metered Free Verse

October swirls red Leaves yellow rustling wind blown

Till blue melds the brown.

57

Newton’s Whit Within the world of very small Exists the tiniest whit of all, One whose digits add no gain To a nit or single grain; And if a whit measures snow, Add one flake to winter’s toll. Even with size so extreme, Divisible still is scale by scheme; For whit over whit tallies well Numbering a world with much to tell: From optimum length to girth of stars, From total lift to time to Mars. And thus we tout Sir Isaac’s whit Praising both beauty and benefit, Yet, ol’ Leibniz can claim… A good half of it! September 2004 Simple Couplets & Triplets In praise of differential calculus And the two Renaissance men who made it so.

Thinly hung yellow, Bent-over stalks no longer

Divide shifting winds.

58

Bloodline Jason, dear Jason: I never knew you except, for a brief half-minute. Yet there you were, nineteen, smiling, and dead— Service photograph on the right, an urn-full of words on the left— With CBS giving the eulogy, all in dinner-time taste. And all was neatly sandwiched Between two Viagra commercials… Perhaps pleasuring your Grandfather With an offer of Babylon’s second chance While another and more ancient Babylon Had just choked his seed. Or is ‘another’ One and the same with the first? Either way, Jason, I grieve: For, you, a young Sparks gone, For thirty-eight fellow Ohioans, For eleven-hundred flag-draped graves, For eight-thousand flesh-torn wounded, For a hundred-thousand budding families— Now shattered— For a million brave hearts who serve, For the America that was, For an Iraq gleefully boiling With anticipated apocalypse, And… For a world convulsing in fear Of Armageddon. October 2004 Free Verse In Memory of an American soldier, Jason Sparks, Killed in the Iraqi War while proudly serving his country

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Sight Unseen Between the amber maples, I descend October’s hill On a winding shoulder pebbled, peddled once for thrill. And in those days to greet us at the bottom of the turn Were oaken beams tin-covered, spanning brook and fern. Young wheels stopped and giggled as initials there we read Declaring years of passion carved in wood long still and dead: Seven-score years of lovers who lived brief summers green In a county—selfsame name—that domed this ancient stream. And now my grey-laced temples walk memories down to view A concrete span low-sided, steel-railed, and silvered new. But one-hundred feet and over sits my covered friend of old Whose rustic walls repainted hide those stories mum, untold. October 2004 Long-lined Couplets Published: Penwood Review The Old Stephenson Road Covered Bridge Still standing in Greene County, Ohio

As the goblin leaves October, The wreath brings in December; A round of rush and glitzy lights,

What thanks hath left November?

60

Anticipation Through the pane I see November— Clouds of gloom, a barren field, Stripped and dead once the yield— Left to mirror a feeble glow When frozen moons light the snow. But sing expectant earth below, For God brings life and love and shield In Jesus—come December! November 2004 Mini Sonnet Hoar Frost Just above the windblown snow Hang frigid clouds, grey and low, Clouds that wrap a glaciered field With bitter mists that do not yield To any hopes of evening glow When purple rays can lift a soul Briefly…from the beds now sealed. January 2005 Mini Sonnet

61

Ode to Order Come O geometric night! Come bring your ancient patterns bright, Your orders everlasting strung On vaults of black far beyond Our feeble deeds and boastful tongue. Only thoughts can ponder such, No chance for mortal limbs to touch Your silent grandeur scoring rhyme Through countless rounds of human time Under starward scenes sublime. And, too, intent so romps below In every sprout or flake of snow, Microscopic balance wee With every leaf on every tree, With every wiggly spawned at sea, With every ocean in each cell Where countless tiny spirals dwell Etching codes on cosmic dust That fills the earthen sky and crust With endless sparks of life robust. Onward motion, sun and moon Meter seasons, midnight, noon; Meter us, mark the years; Meter cyclic joys and tears As birth-to-death reappears. Yet every rise, peak, and fall However large or ever small Is still a note within a score Designer played forevermore In the star, in shell and shore, In the heart above the roar…

June 2005 Mini Ode

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October Flow Beneath a golden, sun-lit tree, I sit on autumn’s shore, Twirling yellow gently down then still upon the floor Atop the browning frost-bent green that mats the earthen door. And looking yon the pasture fence, oaks and maples quake As a crisp but tender breeze stirs russet in its wake With a mix of orange and red as blues the boughs retake, Per thin and meager branches that sway against the sky Where once the chartreuse proud of spring lifted boldly high— When heated blood ran younger, when mountains were to try. Nonetheless, October’s trunk bestows a better place Where cooled thoughts serenely now can filter rat and race By the touch of ancient roots whose cycles all retrace, And by the grace of Mind and soul that lifts my eye to view The grander play of birth and death, of older and of new, In a world Designed to be a fusion of the two… July 2005 Long-lined Triplets Published: Chattels of the Heart Passing On My father used to laugh and say, The beat complete beats time away, And each when done subtracts by one The sum we have in hearts of clay… But that was many years ago When daddies mowed and shoveled snow— When he was here and I was young… July 2005 Mini Sonnet

63

Eternal State Dawn and the wooded crest awakes To an offering of yellow above the quiet knoll, Emerald and gold Mixing In elemental harmony Known only to the Sun, author of life, And to those—sleeping here— Who followed ancient ways in days When earth, flesh, and soul Fused as one. And here still— Beneath the canopied rising— A sacred Caduceus, egg in mouth, Keeps the silence of its creators, Low winding on the floor of Equally Sacred Site… Eternal state… For Ohio— Homeland to the stars, But no stranger to mystery— Has seat on the Great Council— Stonehenge, Cheops, Ayres— Serpent Mound. July 2005 Free Verse Published: Penwood Review

Circle cropping in the night Beneath the fire of fly and star,

Done by dawn and breaking light, I wonder who—near or far?

64

Offering Today, I gently placed A bit of myself— Class of ’65 with its “Happy Days” for some But not-so-happy days for me— Into a small granite casket Lying open in the bright September sun. By doing so, a smattering of pages From that long-ago life Was voluntarily laid to rest— Just a fifteenth for me. Making our way to the stands, I quietly took seat with my wife and my memories As Gold-Star mothers, sisters, and daughters offered Wreaths, words, and tears to the sacred ground Shadowed by equally sacred Wall. Ceremony over, We silently walked away on aging but able legs. But… Three in the book never did… For them it was a fifth—their best fifth… And a century from now When the granite awakes from its timed slumber, One old high school annual will be primed To call into stark remembrance Those three who served and fell In the rice fields of Southeast Asia. And a second Book shall ask, Have ye learned war no more? September 2005 Free Verse Published: Penwood Review Mobile Vietnam War Memorial in Dayton, Ohio

65

Where Were We? Where were we when froth and wave Caressed the ancient shore With shades of blue inlaid with green, The stuff of spawn and spore? And where were we when Cause unseen Did sands with billows bathe… Elusive sparks now known as we In eons long before? September 2005 Custom Rhyme To Mystery

Swirl Below the gilded, autumn sun, A lazy spill has now begun As a gentle morning breeze Rustles color from the trees, Giving spin to yellow leaves And those of red and orange and brown— All awhirl, come tumble down Against the blue and cloudless sky, Dancing, twirling till they lie On the dew-glass green of ground… Ocher still and mother bound. October 2005 Free Rhyme Autumn Beauty

Orange and yellow hills

Glide below November’s wing Whistling through winter.

66

The Many Hearts of Christmas Upon a dark and somber earth When human hearts waned low Came then a Child to fill the dearth In times of long ago. For brought one winter solstice night, Amidst the sheep and hay, A Lamb of hope whose life and light Still shines unto this day. His Word of Truth forever stands Above all faults and tears, Above the deeds of wicked hands, Of kings, despots and seers. And even though the scepter yet Despoils while children weep, Take heart for comes a season set When thrones their deeds will reap. For Christ the Lord will then return To dress the weeded vines— To purge the dross from soul and urn When Refiner all refines! Oh, sing for Christmas here again, For Christmases to come! And, may each joyful heart begin To bring His Kingdom home… December 2005 Irregular Hymn Stanza

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Quiet Assent Lovely, lovely little star Above the winter snow, Silent crystal of the night, You’ve come from long ago When our earth had yet to know A viewer of your sight Brought from clay whose rise and mind Gave wonder and delight. For you were here Before our stand, Before our war and song; And you’ll be here in eons then When humankind is gone— Forever witness from afar, Lonely, lonely little star… January 2006 Free Rhyme Fairy Dust Once were many moon drops laid Upon my golden bed, Nights when fairies yet did shade The world from my head. But nowadays the jesters snatch With ridicule instead Any wands that dust a child To raise them from the dead.

February 2006 Mini Sonnet

68

In Transit Never did ever did fortune agree To ferry young hopes of confident glee Across a whimsical, wind-blown sea In vessels of strength or ones of gold… Still firm come age…with means when old. Do eyes not see in fields of stone The fortunes of dust and hopes of bone— Forever consumed, to earth resown? Nor did the will through arrogant power Save strength enough to spare the hour When gravity claims each withered flower For stirrings of breath that sleep below Awaiting their season to boast and grow. Do eyes not see in fields of stone The strength of dust and will of bone— Forever consumed, to earth resown? Though lips revile and raise the hand Against the Unseen whose seen Demand Pours out the glass that none withstand, Bestowing the sand to dreams to come In a stopover place we mislabel home. And is there not beyond the stone More Power than dust and Mind beyond bone?— To Whom we return, reborn and resown! July 2006 Custom Rhyme

69

Adaptation When I was young Each morning broke With eager anticipation As I awoke To sun aglow And frolicked in sensation— Resplendent hues, Soft cooing doves— So gentle this creation… But Darwin spoke Of life and worth And caused much consternation As I bemoaned The death of sweet And rosy rumination… But greater the goal That captured my soul And nudged this boy’s migration, Heaven to earth, Hope to quest, Myth to contemplation. July 2006 Free Rhyme

Just a few words from key to screen, Ephemeral their creator,

But thoughts reflect what drives the hand Whose jots outlive the later.

70

Much to Avoid Test night, Heads are down As I scan each face For degrees Of confidence Or despair— Papers before them Demanding rigorous argumentation Concerning questions Ancient, arcane, Eternal, and immutable. Theology class perhaps? Conjecturing, How many times will God forgive? No…just Newton’s calculus— Ancient, arcane Eternal, immutable— Predicting times and time… All times Of reckoning Avoided as much As possible.

August 2006 Free Verse

71

Desecration None— Antiochus, Madonna, Mapplethorpe— Could have done it better; for From the safety of my Echo, I watched With nervous silence As a young, Well-muscled skin-head Arrogantly sauntered Across the church parking lot In shirtless buff, Vicariously sporting his balls Through one well-hung pit bull Swaggering ahead On a star-studded leash— Alpha and Beta, Laughing, drooling, Heads cocked to the sky! ... Eyes slightly turned Towards Nazarene doors Where pre-schoolers learned Of lambs and Jesus… Unaware of dragons Claiming the asphalt Between cars and ark; yet, Danger passed— Without knowledge, Without incident, But leaving its telling mark, “And Jerusalem shall be Trodden down of the Gentiles, until the Times of the Gentiles be fulfilled.” Luke 21:24 KJV

September 2006 Free Verse Distain for the Sacred: based on an actual incident

72

Roundel Thru tinted green faint steamers flow And pass their sun-filled gold below To shadowed paths on forest floor, Those ones I know I’ve trod before As I bend towards fields of snow Where mellow thoughts long to go… Once this flesh is sown in rest So spring can issue new the quest. September 2006 Mini Sonnet Metal-Star Remembrances Do not we wish upon the stars, Five points, from tin now made? Hung to mimic those bygone bolts On yesteryear’s facade... Nostalgic stars with cheery looks Above life’s busy way, They mark the passing of our rush, Sad tempo of today. Yes, hope we might; but change we don’t Since fashion conquers will In homes where anchors once of steel Now dress the windowsill. October 2006 Ballad Stanza

73

Euclid’s Beauty Revisited Never did Euclid, as Newton ‘, discern Areas between an edge and a curve Where ancient precisions of straight defer To infinitesimal addends of turn, Precisely tallied in order to learn Those planes that Euclid could only observe As beauty…then barren of quadrature And numbers for which Fair Order did yearn. Thus beauty of worth meant beauty in square, Or, those simple forms that covered the same. And, though, Archimedes reckoned with care Arcs of exhaustion no purist would claim, Yet, his were the means for Newton to bare True Beauty posed…in Principia’s frame. October 2006 Petrarchan Sonnet Beauty Bare of Calculus

74

Bohemian Moments Are a thing rare When in career Of coat and tie, Commute and fly Away, come back Friday late. Saturday dawn, Arise to lawn, Beckoning mow… Then to the mall, Those weekend tours— Church anyone? Life ordinaire, Yet…extraordinaire Once passions... Resolve to claim Moments rare, Serene and bare— And brief— That allow The ear To hear The tiny But clear Cadence of life… Too, capture The same With words In a beat Of keystrokes, Taps and A click… Saved October 2006 Free Verse Published: Penwood Review

75

November Woods November, with each frosty morn, Brings tattered boughs of brown and blue Where the mellow, rising glow Finds ample space to filter through And touch the fallen gold below… One last smile…before the snow Covers all with icy scorn.

November 2006 Mini Sonnet Harvest Mow November in full and after the fall Of sun-lit October’s ocher-rich show, When wagons of red fill golden with fill And after the red oaks red leaves spill… Outside I go…again to mow, Walking the scythe deliberately slow In order to mulch the proud display Once clothed in fire…but brown today… As table for green when after the snow The buds of spring absorb the hay. But, O how we wait and moan For that May once more to own— But for all, just once…one and all. November 2006 Free Rhyme

76

Just a Poem Tiny and small With no book of their own, Claim these lines no power In a world of chatters Whose temporal matters Spin by link and hour. Nonetheless, Within this whole Is very life In measured flow, From beat to beat And year to year— And always the seer who meters the show.

November 2006 Free Rhyme

Come O melancholy And fill this line again.

Always my truest friend, You alone find motive In a dishonest world.

77

Supplication Cold December, Holy Night, Earth is still beneath thy light From Orion’s golden strand, Yonder silvered crescent bright Above my weary, folded hand Whilst I kneel inside this pane As a soul with much to gain— “Christ to heart direct again…” December 2006 Mini Sonnet Hey Jesus How about a beer tonight? With me? Two or three?...or more? We can sit before The world’s window together And mourn a sight Called Christmas. December 2006 Reverse Split Tanka Christmas to Xmas

78

Forever Come Swiftly Fade away old year, fade away please, And into the past go gently with ease Without any woes for a new year to groom, For new years bring new woes; as always, they loom Soon after ball drop and skyrocket boom Empties each giddy and laughter-filled room— Year to year, decade to score, Century, centuries, millennia, and more— Replacing the upbeat with hoof-beats of war… As always, as always, as always before. But someday the circle whose cycles repeat Endless and needless despair and defeat Will come to a close when hope comes to stay When Forever’s Predictions Bring Light to the clay! December 2006 Free Rhyme Biblical Prophecy

79

Adam’s Apple From inside to inside I ponder a wall That hides each I from each I that I call Family, friend, contact, or foe, All whose outsides hide insides below. Fused to the inside the outside remains The sum-in-full to I-sided brains, Including all insides whose outsides we see As those that are inside with lips saying “me”… Yet inside the outside is other than bone, Other than flesh that outsides have sown. Thus, could it be true that since the Fall Our “Isides” have ruled and veiled us all?

January 2007 Couplets Original Sin Quiet Custom Old men and full of sleep, on benches sit they by me With folded hands and lowered heads all nodding out to sea. And where they go I do not know, as I just stare to ground With foot in tap to iPod beat, my private world of sound. But if I glimpse each silent face whose lines speak length of life, I think of journeys far and done, complete with drum and fife, Where each has won the right to rest, perhaps some quiet here; So I, in plug to second best, have kept them from my ear…

January 2007 Long line Couplets

80

Snow Day Snow has come late to Ohio, A harsh February blanket Layered with ice and white, One that stills the busy For a day or two… Rarely more. And bitter winds howl, “Stay put!” As sleet chills the back door. Without protest, I obey— Glad to be bound again… To sanity. February 2007 Free Verse Stirrings March, March, wind and rain, Soggy grey, a dash of ray Golden on the soul, For winter now is on the run, A wounded beast With mortal blow; And I can sing again!

March 2007 Free Rhyme

81

The Goose A single goose on high and loose Against the western wind, Flies and fails Though strong the flails, Though strong its will to fend. Wings in arrest veer then from West; To South and East they go, Changing course To sail the worse… Soaring with the blow. March 2007 Free Verse Published: Penwood Review Symbiosis Beneath the shadowed lichens green Awakes a March of wonders seen As tiny wings and wands of gold Restore yon sleeping forest floor With snowy melt from winter cold So bud to leaf can spring once more And fern, re-dress a Leprechaun door. And with my back to moss and stone, My thoughts regress to times alone Atop a sacred, emerald ground Where lilies new fed elf and bee And fairies danced their circles round In days of magic reason free When mystery came on hand and knee…

March 2007 Free Verse Published: Penwood Review

82

The Oarsman I see an oarsman rowing as I stroll the shore of shores. Into a wild and open sea, alone he strains the oars To fight a salty wind-blown spray, tow from fathoms deep, Giving his all again and again and more so all he’ll keep. And as I watch his dogged craft heave towards the setting sun, I try to think of time and place when rowing…there was none. Yet, I remember not a day without an oarsman’s will; So as horizon’s edge he joins, I know he’s rowing still. And with that hope, I slowly leave an angry, foam-swept blue For one determined oarsman to complete his mission true Far beyond where I may go, far, far beyond my view— Where there your all will come to goal, the hero’s life in you… April 2007 Long-lined Couplets Overcoming adversity Renewal Rhythmic breakers froth and roar On emerald waves that rush a shore Of white beneath azure above And the golden orb thereof As four of earth and sky restore Life itself, a hope once more That all is good and God is love.

May 2007 Mini Sonnet

83

May Is Green— all blend and shade! October in reverse Where chartreuse and jade, Hunter and moss, Emerald and lime Redress a forest, meadow, glen, Perhaps each fairy wing therein With a signet hue of time When life gives time to life. May 2007 Mini Sonnet Counter What is time forever slow Or still or fast? I don’t know… But however how it seems, In my world of dreams And private myths, I A timeless window make To the arrow now awake. June 2007 Mini Sonnet

Of all the mysteries I have known, None compares to that once sown Within the flesh and core of man,

Which speaks of me as lone again.

84

Away When you view my lifeless bier Shed not the dew of human tear For clay that cannot rise or stand, To feel your grief or hold your hand. From tears as these I’ve gone away, Away from pain and yesterday, To timeless bliss, resplendent blue, Gone home to God… Away and through… June 2007 Free Rhyme Descent If God is love In all we see, Then all above Resides in me. And if that all Is me in part, Then great that fall Into my heart. July 2007 Short Rhyme

85

Future An old man sits and nurses his pain With faraway eyes transfixed to a cane As worn as the hands spotted and brown Cupping its tarnished filigree crown. “Better days backward” both seem to say, The oak that was him, that here today Bearing mementoes from times long ago, Times less bitter, much stronger, and whole. And vanity booms, “We’ll never go there!” So withered, alone in a faded blue chair; For ours is the season of vigor and friend, Eternal to fools…but each has an end… July 2007 Simple Couplets Of Calls to Come Beyond the golden green of morn, above the cooing call, I see a road with curves and bends ascending into fall Where the sun begins to set and sets the earth aglow With colors unimagined as these summer fields I mow. So, I shall leave this known and trade, a track of many years, And head yon winding path away to where my vision clears. For all doth bloom and wither once before the twilight end; Thus, I must go to meet my crest and other callings tend… August 2007 Long-Lined Couplets USAF Civilian Retirement

86

Stew Pot For a thimble full of bile, The earth in peril sways As moods the end beguile And rule the present days. Yes, human is the honey, And human is the myrrh; But so is gall and money When mixed by envy’s stir. August 2007 Short-Line Quatrains

Fall moon, golden glow, Sits full, hovers low

Above the ear With shadowed deer, One buck and doe.

87

Naiveté “Those were the days my friend, We thought they’d never end, We’d sing and dance… Forever and a day…” So sang my spring aglow In years now long ago, When all was lust And haughty play. But… Came to me as well The stroke of evening bell That swiftly took My fount of youth away… Leaving this instead, A wiser, smaller head, One who tends Both Piper and the pay. August 2007 Custom Mimic

88

Golden Fall Through the golden boughs of morn, Golden streamers fall, And stir the hazy floor of dawn With flaxen fingers small That rouse both dewy leaf and fern To greet the rising sun And sup the nectar of their source So long ago begun. By afternoon, pure azure reigns, Blue pierced with bursts of fire, October’s shades from rust to red That with the yellows spire. But nature’s bloom since early June Will soon turn grayish brown Once November’s weakened dome Succumbs to earth and ground. For just a few short weeks remain To dance their final dance, Before those times determined come And hush both gene and chance. September 2007 Irregular Ballad Stanza

89

Equinox An old man Of waning strength Slowly leaves home For the home Where his wife Of sixty-one years Awaits his coming And her returning To the life that once was, Not to be again. Fields, harvest, festivals, Friends, and family; Most have gone— Cycles and seasons— Time itself… Except His appearing at nine-thirty, Now leaving at six-thirty, Before the sun goes down… September 2007 Free Verse Published: Penwood Review

Grey clouds blow cool Through the first yellow tints

Of September.

90

Mousey Hey little mousey meek and low, I watch you scurry to and fro Beneath the corn beyond my grass Where I stand with powered glass. So…do you know as I can know As you scurry to and fro? And can you see beyond the tree Where I stand and look at thee? October 2007 Short Couplets Awe On a midnight moonless sky Arcs a million diamonds high Clocking forward east to west As against this trunk I rest And pretend to comprehend All above from start to end… But within, I shrug and sigh. October 2007 Mini Sonnet

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Embers November is the curled leaf Alone and low to ground Above a tawny, broken field Where harvest did abound. For golden ear succumbs to scythe And scarlet is no more Once November wanes the days— December’s breath at door. November 2007 Ballad Stanza Lightfall O Come Ye golden-river flow And set yon milky fields aglow High above December’s snow… With silver spill on earth below Where crystalline gems, Resplendence seen, Adorn each bough And evergreen… O Light as one, Ye Mystic Fire… For Sacred Realms Our hearts inspire As Holy Worth Transcends the night, Awe in peace… God’s delight…

November 2007 Free Rhyme

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Span Mid afternoon, and December’s shadow stretches long In the crisp, low-hanging sun As it reaches across An overnight snow and Touches now-fallow beds Once filled with summer. December 2007 Free Mini Sonnet Pictures Remember the dawn when once before We stood and gaped thru heaven’s door As life rushed in and pulled the eye To vistas sweet and wonders sky. For we were young with all ablaze, Then unaware of coming days When fire and flow would wane and die, And photos old would bring a sigh… January 2008 Couplets

Orion’s diamonds Glisten above the snow boughs

In winter’s silence

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Mix Crystalline snow Of sun-wrought glow Swirls through pines To fields below, Now frozen bare By azure air In winter’s grip And tow. January 2008 Free Rhyme Glaze February ice Hangs thick On wire And limb In a rain Of cold Glass. February 2008 Free Verse

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Awakening Just one frost did April bring In this year of early spring Where every bush and bed and tree Was lush with bud and bloom and bee Before the May pole spun with glee. And though the pollen fills the breeze That bears a curse of cough and sneeze, Oh, see! Behold the world anew, Where greens cavort in every hue Along with purple, pink, and blue— Whites and reds, yellows too! May 2008 Custom Rhyme

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Is… Time An illusion Wrought by motion— Hands on a clock, Reverie of thought, Sunrise to sunset, Seasons, years, and cycles— All repeating Twirling, Spinning With the same Certitude Of sameness, Eternity looming As the moment of Of cessation? June 2008 Free Verse

Oaken canopies Cavort in blue summer skies

As termites dig graves

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Cars To and thro, Here they come, There they go. Where? I don’t know… Except When I sit and steer That Which I control, Or at least I believe It so. June 2008 Free Verse Insight What do I see In front of me, Just a flower Or bird, or tree? No! Miracles all… Mirrors of Thee… July 2008 Mini Verse

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Church Supper Old faces from long ago Sit and chat as I, Once a member Among them, Watch my memories Of when All was much younger And life stood tall… Above me— Way back, yesterday. Now, Most are under stone Or in my head With me…alone. August 2008 Free Verse Hot Air Words awhirl filling my mind With bits and pieces Of phases That I Cannot seem to find A connection for Like once before… When all made sense Within a fence Where circles sat smugly In a square whole. September 2008 Free Rhyme

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October Gold Flows gently Over ocher-filled boughs, Gilded crowns shimmering In the crisp Autumn sun… Their tawny remnants (Once green with May) Displaying both line and etch From summer’s fling… Now a memory… But more… A present beauty That past Never won.

October 2008 Free Verse Ports of Call Our seasons come then swiftly go As time moves forth, but never fro, To ferry each from birth to death— Initial gasp to final breath— Across one’s finite span below Where digits mark the rise and fall Of those once on this earthen ball But now within new ports of call. November 2008 Mini Sonnet

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We Two You and me, So plain a view, Though, Never one could be So true. And, yet, I see Between each me Two walls of flesh With moats of space That parts our we To make one be… Both you and me. December 2008 Free Rhyme Christmas Lost Baby Jesus, come and lay In a manger soft with hay As you did one silent night Once upon my yesterday: When golden stars twinkled bright Above green diamond fields of white And magic filled much younger eyes Now drained by rite… To no surprise December 2008 Free Rhyme

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A Long Now Ago To live an ever seamless now Where each today forever is Is folly’s goal no matter how Our finite arrows swiftly whiz And span one’s allocated time As surely metered as this rhyme Now almost done; thus, I expend My final line. Goodbye! The end. February 2009 Mixed Quatrains March 1 March sweeps clean Ohio’s leaf-strewn Brownscapes, Blue skies blowing hard Above dormant branch and limb Soon to bud green As southerly winds Renew their regenerative flow, Loosening winter’s icy hand Upon the crumpled fields below Where burrow and furrow Harbor the harbingers, Small beginnings Ready to sprout, Reclaim… And grow. March 2009 Free Rhyme

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Original Dilemma Go away tempter, for subtle your snare That beckons the flesh to lust unaware For all that an eye or an ear might bring To capture my soul and anchor my wing With the inanimate bait of a thing. Decision to touch, my passions now reign, And heaven reenters your cave again… April 2009 Iambic Pentameter Mini Sonnet Original Sin Prophecy 2009 Come hear the nearing thunder, yon din of Holst and Mars, Hooves of crimson turning towards our lucky stars And we who flaunted blessings, gilded heads with pride With naiveté, our partner; dark Babylon, our guide. And, as his tower rises, yea, more gleeful we’ve become That here within is all of worth that adds a worthy sum To all of human heritage, pure water from the well, Cosmic split of right from wrong—our heaven from their hell. Too, wrapped in self-love wonder, god-sent our ways say we And our manifest mission exporting the same with glee. But, lo, three billion horsemen prepare a bitter end For us, our wanton orgy…that no angel will defend. May 2009 Long-line couplets

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Repose Now I lay me down to sleep, To earth again I go Where ages past the eons keep In stillness far below. For, naught to me was all before, Before my rise and time, Too, things to be beyond this hour, Beyond this pen and rhyme… So, come again my silent friend And seal these years in clay, For each forever has an end When night gives ground to day. May 2009 Hymn Stanza Mop Up Within this subtle Neverland, Night labyrinths of my mind, Are wonders more than all the world Can snare my hand to find… Where in I go and face my own Allures from earth or hell, Conquering all and all alone— So days in peace I dwell. June 2009 Ballad Stanza Temptation

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Vows Forty years, So strange a span, Once thought of As just shy Of forever… When you and I turned And faced the world With nothing more Than a vow… Mere words I suppose for some… But for us… Our glue of why, Our bridge to now. July 2009 Free Verse 40th Wedding Anniversary

Within the silence of this room Is all that one can know,

Though just outside is all the rest— Forever, long ago.

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August Dew Common now are dewy mornings Breaking with the glimmer Of tiny crystal droplets Scattered about the olive lawns Beyond my open window— Later dawns, When sun parts an August haze Spawned by cooler, longer nights That, just an hour or so before, Displayed deep winter’s jewels— Where each, a silent troubadour, Hints of summer almost gone… August 2009 Free Rhyme High Five Give me a taste of sugary sweet Along with the smell of rose in bloom. Then, give me a touch, a sight, a sound From any forbidden or shadowy room So I can jump, jump up and down, And twirl around Said zenith of life With fullness So much, so good, so swell!— Away from my self, So close to hell… September 2009 Free Rhyme Five senses, five gates…

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Booed Out Long ago in times of play, October danced with red by day, Along with yellow, orange, and brown Until the evening sun slipped down Behind the gloom of colors lost To silhouettes and ghostly stalks Where little feet dared not to stray. And younger eyes looked to and fro For silent bumps that seemed to know If heads were ripe to turn and twist Or self destruct with slight assist As darkness poked in muffled glee And whispered boos from every tree. But that was then and this is now And I recall not when or how Distress unmasked the gnarled brow To slay yon ogres of the night That hid in heaven, earth, or hell With storied dung— New spat, old smell! October 2009 Free Rhyme Halloween

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Coming to Terms November has brought thin remnants of brown Scattered on branches once burnished with gold Or russet-red hues of tenuous hold To peaks now barren of color and crown As winds from the north blew vanity down One leaf at a time to an earth grown cold And blind towards splendors high-flown, far told However displayed in raiment or gown. And yesterday’s glory awaits the blade To mulch and resow each fallen ember Beneath the beds of early December Where old disappears so new can be made From flower turned fodder, once again laid Below their moments that none remember…. November 2009 Petrarchan Sonnet Bipolar Once there was a pillar of fire That flung despotic rage Throughout a Testament of Ire With death on every page. But ogre wrath is hidden now By cherub kindness sweet That all must kiss in lowly bow Or hell you’re sure to meet. December 2009 Hymn Stanza

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Watcher A December’s mall shelters An old man full of sleep, His silent head bowed towards the Rocky-Mountain Chocolate Factory And unaware of me, Stoic of the Moment, In a nearby chair— Alive with self-talk. Yeah God… There sits a pitiful old soul, One whose better days are far behind him—yep— Like the faded blue ball cap Covering his time-etched, Splotched-up face—too much sun…. Yep! Sure do notice that dopy red shirt Half covered over by a tan sweater… Matching pants to boot! (All of which could use a wash). Yeah God…You bet…I’m still watching! Hey, do you think he’s waiting for— Hmm—the Angel of Death? Maybe? O well, guess I better keep sittin’ here… Might need to break his fall— If it happens… But, Lo! One hour later, The feeble eyes opened and Lazarus stood, A little wobbly at first. He then turned towards me and, after a slight pause, Shuffled off to Elder Beerman Obviously in search of something Or someone…to engage.. December 2009 Free Verse Good Samaritan

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Bus Kids When I was young, if radio Would warn of coming ice and snow By Monday dawn, then all was glee While AM vespers coddled me With hopes of school called off—I’m free! But, morning punched my groggy head As Daddy flipped the switch and said, “Busses only—get out of bed!” February 2010 Mini Sonnet Hero “God speed John Glenn!” For February speaks of when One winter morn so long ago We all looked up with nervous sigh As Atlas pierced a southern sky On shoulders of flaming thunder. And, I…remember… With pride! February 2010 Mini Sonnet Published: Penwood Review

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Rain Man Pitter patter falls the splatter On my window sill. So I, inside, retreat and hide Away with mind to fill. And though today brings rain to stay Beyond the dreary pane, Myself I keep to matters deep Within the boundless brain. March 2010 Free Rhyme March March is The guardian To a room filled With summer. When ready, It opens the door, Turns on the light, And allows a peak Or two… Of what Lies ahead. March 2010 Free Verse

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Droplet Come rain or snow, sleet or shine, When brought by March, all are fine. And, even ice, though never nice, Quickly parts its frozen vise Since days are longer, Far less bitter As we leave the last Of winter. March 2010 Free Rhyme August, A month so mellow, Yet parched with the yellow Of straw-colored leaves Wrapped loosely in curl Around the drone Of locust wings Under an aging sun— And, I fear… A thousand things Remain undone. August 2010 Free Rhyme

Firefly, take wing below A purpled twilight sky,

To cast your glow Ahead of night

Before you slow… And die.

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One One July Some time ago, One step made one Of friend and foe As both cast eyes Beyond the earth To view one man, One common worth Transcending creed Or land of birth… On the moon. August 2010 Free Rhyme Published: Penwood Review First Moonwalk 20 July 1969 The Is the word uttered Before derision Exits a mouth— Those hot babbles Of loose tongues Gasping mid-breath As hearts choke Halfway to hell. September 2010 Free Verse Gossip

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October Blue Azure skies above the trees Blow a wisp of winter breeze Through ocher boughs And yellow leaves Adorned with bursts of crimson fire Here and there upon the pyre Of summer things Whose time has come To venture home Where all are from… Beyond October’s splash and tease, Color whirls on fancy sleeves. Beware the cold December… October 2010 Free Rhyme Afterglow Defused of color Except for solemn patches Of shriveled brown, November’s boughs keep vigil Above gathered fields Still being gleaned By fall bucks… And hunters’ dreams. November 2010 Free Rhyme

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Through the Glass Darkly Thru darkened glass, Each soul must peer To catch a glimpse of hopes held dear Within the deep and guarded heart Where self cavorts from very start To foul one’s lens… With sense and part. November 2010 Free Rhyme Published: Penwood Review Welcome January comes with snow, Bitter winds that howl and blow Across the barren fields of white Just beyond my kitchen light, Where quiet deer I see at night Feeding on bent stalk and bean Left from fall, now theirs to glean As all in peace take rest…then go. January 2011 Mini Sonnet

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Linage Just… One more thought before you die, Before you merge with earth and sky Forever…and wherever— Beyond our reach, Nevermore to soothe or teach… Except by way of wood and pen, Those strokes that stay, bring mind again Long after dust Has claimed its own Under an old and quiet stone. So… Journey on as you must To find the end of hope and trust— However, first, some time to leave A word of two Of whom you were— Ten thousand more… If you should care… February 2011 Free Rhyme

One leaf, one hue, Swirls in the golden blue, Soon itself to kiss the floor Where newness springs From old once more…

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Come! Hell’s a poppin’ And earth’s a rockin’ As Satan takes his due— With war and ruin Despoiling dreams By horses five In view… February 2011 Free Rhyme Prophecy On Darwin Into a world of random gain, Naked we go through blood and pain To toss below the common curve That holds us all, that all will serve Until the end of fortune’s reign When bells of chance… Come toll again… March 2011 Custom Sestet Standard Normal Distribution

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Time Machine When I was young, All days were long, Meandered easy, slow Through spring anew, Come amber hue, Then fairylands Of snow. And never once, Not once, did I Think time would ever go Where most Is now behind me In memory’s Fading show. April 2011 Free Rhyme

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Nothing Personal Once I fall in love with me, Center all that I can see About myself with selfish glee, Then I become by my decree A gift from God, His pedigree— To walk the world As special! Yet, special wrings an anguished price When fits of naughty despoil my nice, Displeasing the One Whose specialty Is meting out Those payments due— Especially… For me… April 2011 Free Rhyme Treed When we were young, all limbs could run And scale the tallest tree; Too, hike for hours to stony cliffs And dream of lives we’d be. But, one by one, fate took our hands To meet old Mother Bell Who scattered lots before our birth That Father Time would quell. May 2011 Ballad Stanza

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War Baby America’s wars Take a hellish toll With ten years bringing back Both caskets and basket cases, Our son being one of the latter, No injuries seen Except deep within Unraveled Brain matter… Where Mommy’s arms Outrank a Disability check. June 2011 Free Verse Published: Penwood Review Meltdown My country of the past Where freedom could not last Once greed did reign, Gone ways of common good, Right choice, and brotherhood… All lost by wills that stood For me alone. August 2011 Mini Sonnet

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One Last Test My final Mathematics class, Calculus II, is finished, Grades posted. A most Suitable end, For it was Newton’s Delectable brainchild That fed me For forty-five years With numerical Wonder. But then Has turned to now, And a new reckoning Must rebalance The old. So, gone are the Derivatives, integrals, Equations of change Versus change— Except… Change itself… Accelerating… September 2011 Free Verse

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Rise and Fall Behold the rise! Magnificent fire In morning skies When a world Watched, United eyes, Three to the moon… Our joy— Too soon— Dried up By time. Yet, The tears of then Would come again— Sweet hope To be A bitter flow— As towers fell In morning flames Fanned by hell, Our lusts Below. September 2011 Free Rhyme Apollo 11 and 9/11

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Color Me Fall Color me fall throughout and all With yellow and orange, ocher and brown, Some crimson below the golden ball Gliding above the mellow crown, Each still, ephemeral leaf that lies Beneath cerulean, sunlit skies, My own forever-wistful sighs. And, here I’d live my days in awe, Though brief and soon to swirl down— Enough of saplings greening tall— Enough of years spent on renown… October 2011 Stave of Seven+ Quatrain

One leaf, one hue, Swirls in the golden blue, Soon itself to kiss the floor Where newness springs From old…once more.

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God Speed John Glenn, now Fifty years ago to when Our visions were young, New missions, begun. And, I, Just fourteen then, Would dream Above the sky In quiet bed Where hopes would lie As Atlas flung Small capsules high On rocket fire, America’s silver Suited heroes Within…so Far beyond My earthly Sigh… Yet… Much to inspire One grounded boy Whose awkward head And mumbled tongue Had no place To go… But up.

February 2012 Free Rhyme Golden Anniversary of Friendship 7: 20 February 1962

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Quiet Honor He tried hard to contain The uneasy demons from his past, Dealt during repeated rotations Of McArthur’s Cartwheel. Yet, unlike the stubborn fungus Ferried home on his calf, There was no treatment In a time oblivious To the collective devil Now known as PTSD. Even so, the seasoned radar officer— Once dapper man-about-town Turn long-wearied veteran of Many and untold Fierce engagements In the march towards Japan— Returned with a wish: A quiet engineer’s life and Restored normality. Nonetheless, Much within could not return And remained… over there… Silently imprisoned By the hellfire Of war. However, By his own struggling Greatest-Generation way, He succeeded— Without therapy, Without pity, Without recognition— Retaining pride to the end, Both in himself, in the America He loved. June 2012 Free Verse Published: Penwood Review In memory of my Father: Roscoe C. Sparks (1910-1994)

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Wear Out One body old is where I live Behind my eyes and ears Within a finite span of flesh, Past peak at sixty years. In better days, I was the one, My body and my me, Before my I did disengage To see that two might be. Today the two are quite apart As bone succumbs to wear With missing teeth now quite the norm As well as missing hair. June 2012 Ballad

Out of Time Someday will bring us out of time Where life now meters as this rhyme Through younger days that never last As decades come, then join the past— Prisoners all of nature’s beat That no one will escape or cheat Until a rise to realms sublime Where earth is not…along with time. June 2012 Mini Sonnet

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Heavenly Quest? So out of time (Perhaps for eons), Our ever mysterious Consciousness Slowly awakens To all things matter By way of body fragile, Subsequently traveling Entropy’s arrow Through a predictable, Parabolic succession Of sensual events, All within the Common realm Called collective Human experience. Thus it goes For the proverbial Three score and ten Until one’s minute Fleshy carrier Finally succumbs From… Exhaustion. So… What next brave soul? More Heaven on Earth? More Earth in Heaven? Or moving on?

August 2012 Free Verse

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I Got Wheels Once a boy turns age sixteen, Well-muscled cars are everything, Manhood incarnate per screaming machine: Horses galore, chromed and lean. So, count it no wonder when one a grade younger, Your childhood chum come current contender, Blows out your pride, deflates your thunder By being the first—no father or mother— To roll it alone—no trace of another! For, slowing, he strikes a haughty pose, Left arm outside and fully exposed, His face towards me, a grinnin’ and smirkin’, While steerin’ one boss… And big hunkin’ Lincoln. Then he stops his measured glide By my forlorn, now beaten side To proclaim as Master of his ride (and me)… “I got wheels”. August 2012 Free Rhyme Actual event—though not humorous at the time—in 11th grade

Drought has cast July Into September, each field,

A browning disaster With little green left,

Even less hope.

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Lunar Farewell Oh Neal… We all gazed With anxious hands together As you lifted petty eyes Towards possibility By your one small step, And—albeit for one brief moment— Truly bought This old fallen world… A Coke.

August 2012 Free Verse Published in Penwood Review In memory of Neal Armstrong: 1930-2012

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Where Faith Begins He was an elderly, well-loved Nazarene pastor, somewhat retired After sixty years or so of Sermons, bible studies, Funerals, weddings Meetings, potluck suppers… And the like. On occasion, Generally a Saturday morning, I would meander over his way For a vitalizing, father-like chat Spanning Current events, Calvinism as opposed to Arminianism, Doctrinal conundrums and Plenty of light-hearted otherwise— Where fresh coffee, smiles, Humor, hugs, and handshakes Were the only rules…Always, He held his own in kind, able fashion. Unexpectedly, towards the end of Our last conversation, He gently brushed all catechism aside And concluded the morning By one unpretentious But firm declaration, “You know… I am quite convinced there is Something Good out there.” Leaving somewhat perplexed By this lack of appropriate theology, It was years after his death Before the simplicity And profound power Of that single statement Forever illumined my soul Without labels… October 2012 Free Verse In Loving Memory of Pastor Harold Maish

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Uncle Pop January 1947, “Pop”, My last grandfather died. In the same month, I was conceived— Too late to know The tall, raw-boned, Lincolnesque Hoosier Whose big hands Never held his sixth… And final grandson. Then again… Perhaps they did… For, at age 65, I can now imagine My first-time Dad Making a quiet request To his older brother—one Crude, raw-boned, kind, Father himself of four sons— To answer a babe’s call, Stand tall in Pop’s gap. Oh…stood tall he did For some 31 years! As Grandfather, Uncle, friend and, yes, Welcome-home refuge (Complete with chicken dinner awaiting) Every time a small family Of post WWII Buckeyes Meandered back To their simple Indiana roots.

November 2012 Free Verse In Memory of my Uncle Curt, Curtis William Sparks: 1904-1978

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Apex The most glorious sight Ever witnessed by me Was a silver ship rising Straight over the sea, Three aboard bound On great tongues of fire To a faraway land Without greed or ire And none other goal Than just to stand Where no Human soul Had ever been Except… In wistful Gaze. Oh high Summer days So long ago! An apex brief So gone too soon… When we stepped out Beyond ourselves With one Small step Upon the Moon…

January 2013 Free Rhyme Apollo

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Other Books by the Author Poetry 1. Gold, Hay and Stubble, 2006, AuthorHouse, ISBN:1-4184-4098-1 2. Mixed Images, 2000, Morris Publishing, ISBN: 0-615-11668-X 3. Rhyme for All Seasons, 1998, Morris Publishing, ISBN: 1-57502-732-1 Mathematics 4. Calculus without Limits, 2007, AuthorHouse, ISBN:1-4184-4124-4

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About the Author

John C. Sparks, shown on the left with his wife Carolyn of 44 years, is a native of Xenia, Ohio and a Xenia High School Graduate—class of 1965. He went on to earn technical degrees at Wright State University and the Air Force Institute of Technology. Sparks has not spent his career as an academic poet, but as an engineer and mathematics teacher. He retired from Wright-

Patterson Air Force Base in 2007 and Sinclair Community College in 2010. In late 2003, Sparks received the Ohio Association of Two-Year Colleges’ 2002-2003 Adjunct Teacher of the Year Award for his long-term efforts in improving mathematics education in the greater Dayton area. In the technical writing genre, Sparks has written a commercially-available book, Calculus without Limits, intended as a study aid for first-year calculus students. One Small Thought is a chronological selection of over 160 author-favored and/or journal-recognized poems written throughout the years 1996 to early 2013. Many other poems were written during the same time period, but are not included in One Small Thought due to their more limited audience appeal.

Sparrow-Hawke †reasures