Poetry

My mother wrote this poem to my fatherI think in their courting days. It seems suitable for our spring now springing.   Inevitable A stream is singing lullabyes, Its song has reached my ear; And though I’m far and far away      How can I but hear? Violets are blossoming,  Their hue has come to […]

facial feature poem #1 now that these last few years I’ve become a news junkie I’ve seen the faces on TV not just read their words or heard their NPR voices no this isn’t a political poem it’s about the leader of the judicial committee Jerry Nadler’s left eyebrow – maybe you’ve noticed how it […]

one reason I go to the UU group on sundays is to listen to Bonnie E play  I wanted to learn piano as a kid so did my sister yet there were too many notes all at once we did much better on strings but here’s how we gained keyboard aplomb we’d take a hymnal […]

archival poem #31: Uncle Trever writes Jackie     “You know that little brook running through our pasture – well, your dad  and I were making a sod dam so we’d  have a swimming hole when we firstlaid eyes on our cousin Karl Trever.We were naked as jay birds, he was  in neat little pantaloons and […]

I will be astounded if the rage (controlled)of Adam Schiff does not in future history ring with JFK and MLKing. Yes Adam billions echo, say, “It’s not OK!” “It’s not OK!” the nunes were shown for what they be the goons of sick psycopathy. With those like you to dam decay our country cannot lose […]

music memory poem #7     here’s a partial list of music I’ve stayed in the car to hear the finish: a partita – bach – for unaccompanied violin, a haydenconcerto I thought was an unfamiliar mozart, thais meditation, vaughn williams’ fantasia on a theme by thomas tallis for  double string orchestra (I played the  cello […]

 “I resented Aunt Ida for always favoring the first born. When your dad and I were going to town school for awhile and we boarded across the street, she’d always have a nice surprise for Ron like a skiprope or a ball and jacks when we came in from school. I’d drop my lower lip […]

springfield poem # 27 I appreciate that springfield is wanting to keep us walkers and riders safe from the new faster trains but the big red  and white barriers blocking some  downtown streets are not only unsightly but in one case making it almost impossible to find the  large plaque erected for our most unsung […]

1921 letter, to his son, my father, a freshman at Northwestern University, from his father, my grandfather: “Your detailed letter received. Iliked it very much in that it told exactly what you were doing but it displeased me greatly that you  were doing as you are. I am not  going to write a lecture, you […]

bugastrophy poem #1 our cynical joke has been when homo sapiens has done itself in  planet and cockroaches will be    all that’s left that’s now highly unlikely a recent study shows one third of our bugs are already  almost extinct the poles haven’t  even finished melting the other 2/3 will be gone in a century […]

my friend took her african grey parrot to the urbana avian vet for her yearly checkup–pokes prods peers down her beak up her bung takes temp takes blood she doesn’t like it at all (would you?) spits  snaps snarles grumbles complains “you must think this is the end of the world” the vet is sympathetic […]