Category Archives: Poetry

Tower of Strength

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Why Atlas, Samson, Hercules, Paul Bunyan
and Superman aren’t with us anymore…
and why the latest SuperHero won’t last.

He was strong. Unlike some men his size
power pulsed, constrained–there was no fat.
He stood tall. His eyes looked down on those
passing by who turned and stared, impressed.
He would smile. He joked when asked his height,
Five feet…twenty!” Childhood awe returned
(big is best, is boss.) Authority
is imposed. The strong do what they want.

He had never been a little child–
young, but never small. Assumed adult,
he was proud to grapple, fight and hold,
lift and shoulder, carry, guard, protect.
Work was good, but work was never done.
Satisfaction was postponed. Trials like
cancer cells dividing, unrestrained,
overwhelmed him. Tasks enough to make
gods despair. Then buildings built decayed,
bridges fell, and wars blazed in the land
he had calmed before. He went to bed.
The world’s weight will break the strongest man.

-Steve Shoemaker
[Published in Response, Journal of the Lutheran
Society for Worship, Music and the Arts, No. 3,
1976.]

EDITOR’S NOTE: Apologies to Steve for the formatting. The first three lines were originally centered. The blog hasn’t cooperated this morning. Art fell victim to technology. BUT without te3chnology “Tower of Strength” would not have come your way.

Join Steve at Shepherd of the Hill Presbyterian Church in Chaska, MN Tuesday, October 1 at 7:00 p.m. for a Tuesday Dialogues program featuring Steve’s poetry.

Atlas and St. Patrick Cathedral

Atlas and St. Patrick Cathedral

Poetic night view from the plains

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Twilight on the Plains

Three things up above tonight,
No, four: last, a star, (the kite
First reached altitude), a hot
Air balloon was second, third,
Bright against the dark-turned
Sky–precisely half a moon.

Matches lit the hurricane
Lantern and a pipe beside
Rocking chair, plants, on side
Porch. Horizon towns show light
After light: gold, yellow, white.
Flashing red antennas point…

– Steve Shoemaker, Urbana, IL, September 21, 2003.

Join Steve for an evening of poetry on the theme “Becoming Free: Go Fly a Kite” Tuesday, October 1 at 7:00 p.m. Steve’s visit is part of the Shepherd of the Hill Presbyterian Church’s Tuesday Dialogues Program: examining critical public issues locally and globally. Steve will look at emancipation – both social and personal – in advance of a major celebration of the 150th Anniversary of the Emancipation Declaration here in Chaska, MN on Saturday, October 26 at Chaska High School.

The Donkey’s Questions

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Matthew’s Gospel has two asses (donkeys), not one, in its Palm Sunday narrative. “They brought the ass and the colt, and put their garments on them, and he sat thereon.” Steve Shoemaker’s versed ponders the scene from the standpoint of the colt.

Verse – The Donkey’s Questions on Palm Sunday,
according to St. Matthew

He searched for just the right stick…
but then he never hit me? Why
go to all that trouble? Pick
the answer: 1. that he would try
directing the singing? 2.
to lean on when the day was through?

Why does he ride on my mom
while I’m just trotting alongside?
What does “Halleluja” mean?
Who’ll pick up clothes after the ride?
Now he shifts and rides on me–
he breaks the stick and makes a “T.”
His face looks like he’s had a loss…
Is he thinking of that cross?

– Steve Shoemaker, Urbana, IL,

Verse – learning when age-ed

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the teachers now are all younger
they have read more than i ever
will their devices seem part of
their hands but words and books they love
still as well as screens and apple
will my swiss cheese mind prove ample

-Steve Shoemaker, Urbana, IL, September 19, 2013

Swiss Chees Brain

Swiss Chees Brain

Steve is bringing his Swiss cheese mind to Tuesday Dialogues at Shepherd of the Hill Presbyterian Church in Chaska, MN on Tuesday, October 1.

Verse – A Stain on the Moon (Brain?)

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While driving home last night, I saw

a full moon in the eastern sky.

There were no clouds wandering by

(I’m sorry, Wordsworth…), but I saw

a line, a dark smudge–vertical–

move from the upper right and fall

quite slowly (like a tentacle)

down to the lower left. 

                                               I called

my spouse at home using my cell

(risking the lives of all around),

but she saw nothing.  Could it be

a floater in my eye?  Windshield

bugs, butterflies?  Or could it be,

as some have thought, that I’m crazy.

 

-Steve Shoemaker, Urbana, IL, September 19, 2013

Howling at the Moon

Howling at the Moon

Howl at the moon with Steve Tuesday, October 1 at 7:00 p.m. at Shepherd of the Hill Church Tuesday Dialogues: examining critical public issues locally and globally: “Emancipation: Becoming Free – Go Fly a Kite!”

Quaker Grit

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Gravel and motorcycles don’t mix.
Even though the 73 year old Dean
(Emeritus) was only going 5 mph
on the last gravel mile to his
daughter’s lake house, when he looked
at the passing motorboat,
the big quiet bike slowly slid sideways
and down on his left leg.

A passing lake visitor helped lift
the bike off his bruised, he thought,
limb, and he limped the half-mile
to his daughter’s place carrying
his helmet–the same red as his bike.
After resting, she drove him back
to the unharmed motorcycle,
which he rode the 30 miles home.

He drove his pick-up truck to the
Walk-in Clinic to check the leg
that kept hurting as he walked.
After the X-Rays showed two
breaks, waiting for surgery,
his daughter said, “I’ll bet you
are smiling because your bike
wasn’t even scratched!”

– Steve Shoemaker, Urbana, IL, September 10, 2013

The GPS

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Lost in Chicago

Parking now is privatized,
on-street prices very high,
all hotels have also raised
valet costs in the same way:
everybody wants to make
as much money as they can
before bankruptcy will take
everybody down just like
Detroit.

Mile Magnificent is still
mostly white except for men
parking cars or begging on
sidewalk sides. Inside, women
wear their diamonds on pale hands–
colored hands wear vinyl, fill
buckets, pails, trash bags, and cans:
garbage left behind by all
the rich.

Foreigners drive taxis, make
more here than at home. Send back
salaries and tips to help
families survive. I stop,
lost on lower Wacker Drive,
lower Michigan, no help
here from GPS, “Now drive
east 500 feet and stop.”
(I’d be in the lake…)

– Steve Shoemaker, Urbana, IL, September 9, 2013

P.S. On Tuesday, October 1 Steve will bring his poetry to Tuesday Dialogues at Shepherd of the Hill Church in Chaska. Free and open to the public.

Grandpa and the Grand-kids

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Verse – Ten and Twelve

The high-caffeine pop was a mistake…
but when the older asked for it,
the younger had to have it, too.
The ping-pong chatter natter
never stopped. Good-natured,
but louder and shriller (I turned down,
then took out my hearing aids…)
Day 5 of our week caring for
the grand-kids. Their parents
love going to Burning Man–
what’s temporary noise
in the service of Art?

– Steve Shoemaker, Urbana, IL, September 2, 2013

Verse – Towers

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Of course a tower is built by starting from

the bottom.  Strong workers and machines make

a joint to earth with wet, grey gravel–form

with time a foundation almost like rock.

Orange steel is welded, riveted, and made

to stand naked pointing skyward.   Then blocks

and bricks are hoisted slowly up the side

providing covering flesh the tower lacks.

…

Small children make towers in trees, and these,

though only made of rotting boards, still stand

as proudly strong in little children’s eyes

as those from which much older men descend.

But both kind of towers still seem to say

with their builders:  we look down on the sky.

[from The Anglican Theological Review, early  1970s]

Steve Shoemaker, Urbana, IL

Supersweet Corn – Acrostic Verse

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Iroquois corn and squash

Squash was planted by the Iroquois 

Under corn stalks with the climbing beans.

Protecting the soil from weeds, the leaves

Even shaded earth worms.  Illinois

Researchers much later found the genes

Sweeter than the rest to make the corn,

White or yellow, taste best from the store.

Even though corn from the garden has

Enough health inside to cure most ills,

There are some who still will go buy more.

 

Corn that’s grown to be so super sweet 

Offers all a treat to taste and eat:

Rush the husks from stalk to table–feast!

Never argue:  roast OR boil is best!

– Steve Shoemaker, Urbana, IL August 27, 2013