Category Archives: Poetry

Stamping out Affluenza

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Verse – “Dump and Run”

Lisa Heller lost a ring.

Dumpsters came to be her thing!

She taught students at her school

Making trash just wasn’t cool.

…

Donate stuff that still has use;

Reduce trash, avoid abuse

To the earth.  Take your measure:

Turn the trash into treasure!

…

Lisa started Dump and Run.

College students have great fun

Giving, sharing–have a sale!

Find a bargain, make a deal!

…

Help a group that helps the world,

Buy recycled things you need.

Like you avoid  INfluenza,

You can stamp out AFFluenza!

– Steve Shoemaker, Urbana, IL, pays tribute to “Dump and Run”.

Dumping and running at the landfill

  At the end of the academic year, University of Illinois students drop off the “stuff” that might end up in the landfill to the University YMCA to be recycled by other students.

Former Executive Director of the University YMCA and Pastor of McKinley Presbyterian Church at the University of Illinois, Steve continues to host “Keepin’ the Faith” on Illinois Public Radio  every Sunday evening at 5:00 CST.

Paul the Ap began each day

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Paul the Ap began each day,

apparently ,

thinking that today would be

THE day that He

would return to have his say.

…

So, he said unless you burn

(that’s sexually),

you should live like him and be

(yes, singly) :

you should live your life alone.

…

Paul thought when the Trump would sound

triumphally,

there were places we should be

selectively,

than in bed messing around.

…

Many generations later

Christians thank Paul for his letter,

but think it better far to wait

and live in Heaven like a Saint!

– Steve Shoemaker, Urbana, IL August 2, 2012

“Oh, my!” say I. (Gordon)

Verse: “Christian blood is semen”

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Verse:  “Christian blood is semen.”- Tertullian (180-225 A.D.)

Tertullian

– Steve Shoemaker, Urbana, IL, July 29, 2012

Terrible-tempered ,

Ever-

Ready

To

Use his

Lively

Legal mind

In defense of

Attacks on the faith,

Nasty

…

To all,

Even friends,

Respected

Though for

Urging the

Lord’s followers to

Live faithfully

In spite of the

Authorities’

Never-ending executions.

Tertullian was an “Early Church Father” whose works are required reading in most seminary or graduate school courses in Patristics. Click HERE for more information from The Tertullian Project, or get a chuckle from this post-card produced by The Disseminary: Wisdom wants to be free, re-posted here with permission:

I Live with doubt

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I live with doubt

A hymn by Steve Shoemaker, Urbana, IL, In honor of John Newton (1725-1807), author of “Amazing Grace.”

I live with doubt:  my faith is weak,
Dark clouds are what I see.
A God of love is all I seek,
Can such a good God be?

The world is full of greed and lies,
Of war and talk of war.
Can any savior hear my cries
And hope and peace restore?

When Jesus met the man born blind,
He touched his eyes with clay.
He bid him wash and he did find
His sight and a new day,

The sun breaks through, I see ahead
My task to feed the poor.
I still have doubts, but grace instead
Of fear I feel much more!

My thoughts and feelings come and go
Like sun dissolves the snow;
But God is firm, and now I see,
That God has faith in me.
Garrison Keillor’s “The Writer’s Almanac”posting on the anniversary of the birthday of John Newton, converted slave ship captain, prompted Steve to write these stanzas in honor of the author of “Amazing Grace.”  Steve’s hymn can be sung to the same tune. The meter is the same.

Verse – We never saw the stars

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In memory of Rev. Milton Carothers

As two Protestant pastors, we had no
desire to become eremites, but went
to the monastery  to try to slow
our hectic campus lives in a retreat.
The Benedictine Retreat Master split
us quickly.  I was sent to spend the week
with an old monk–a former architect–
who now designed the gardens for his work
(all of the men must sweat as well as pray.)
We carried rocks; he talked incessantly.
Inside the borders made of stone, each day
we’d pull the sinweeds (never silently.)
At all the common  meals there was no talk
allowed–and in our cells, we were alone,
of course.  At 3 a.m. the bells would wake
us for a walk inside the walls (of stone
also) to sing, to pray the Psalms each night.
We saw no sky:  stained glass kept out starlight.

– Steve Shoemaker, Urbana IL

Editor’s note: I know Milton only through Steve’s tribute to him, but those who have served as campus ministers intuitively understand each other in ways that are unique t those who minister within the walls of the ivory tower. Milton, Steve and I share that history. Milton served in North Carolina, Steve in North Carolina and Champaign-Urbana, IL, and I in Wisconsin, New York, and Ohio. Like Milton and Steve, I have known the need to retreat to the Benedictine retreat center to restore my soul in the solitude and rhythms of Benedictine community.

Although I’ve never risen to pray the Psalms within the walls of stone at 3:00 a.m., I’ve often found myself awake within the starless walls of stone my hardened heart has built. Sometimes at 3:00 a.m. I’m lost among the sinweeds. A Psalm rises up within me to melt the stone, release me from the inner prison, remove the starless plastered ceiling. “When I consider the works of your hands, the moon and the stars which Your fingers have made, what is man that You think of him… and yet” and yet.

“I forgive you”

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Another contribution by Views from the Edge  poet laureate Steve Shoemaker.

I forgive you.
Never say that.  This makes you the good
one–superior, in fine control—
condescending to the one that’s bad.
…
Say nothing, but take the active role:
think, imagine what the other one
likes–what would make them feel happy, whole..
…
Act in loving ways; make a day fun
for your partner, lover, or your spouse.
Live  forgiveness:  be an act of grace.
Editor’s note: Steve knows about these things. He and Nadja have been sweethearts since high school and have been married forever and a day. To Nadja and his friends…Steve himself is an act if grace.

Verse – “Of the Dead”

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Steve hits a home run with this piece. OUCH – and a good laugh.

Verse – “Of the Dead”

De mortuis nihil nisi bonum.

Of the dead speak nothing but good.

…

As the family gathered

after my mother’s death,

of course we told stories.

…

My three younger brothers

did not seem to recall

what most disgusted me

about Mom in our youth.

…

On the phone, she would smile

and say in a sweet voice,

“Good-bye then…see you in church,”

hang-up, and then yell at me,

“Shut-up, when I’m on the phone!

Stop fighting!  You boys drive me crazy!”

…

Then, RING, and “Hello, there…”

in the sweetest low voice/ imaginable.

…..     …     …     …     …

I had been wanting to play

a CD of clever church songs

for my two unchurched grand-kids,

and as I dropped their father off

to  get his repaired car,

I hit the PLAY button, stepped around

to the driver’s seat, heard them yelling

at each other, smashed the OFF button,

and heard myself out-yell them,

“Shut up!  Stop fighting!

You kids are driving me crazy!”

– Steve Shoemaker, Urbana, Illinois, July 7, 2012

Verse – “What to preach?”

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Preliminary notes from “the editor”: 1) “The Lectionary scriptures” to which Steve Shoemaker refers are suggested readings for each Sunday; 2) Douglas John Hall is emeritus Professor of Theology at McGill University in Montreal, Quebec and a prolific author on God and human suffering.

Verse —  What to Preach?

(With thanks to Douglas John Hall.)

The Lectionary scriptures are a start,

and in the newer testament, the word

of Jesus burns and leaves a scar:  the heart

is moved, the mind is taught.  The acts of God,

the miracles, may be hard to believe,

but are (in fast close-up) no stranger than

from vine to wine,  from seed to bread,  from eve

to dawn,  that I see every day.  And when

the older testament is read,  I hear

the call to love my foes, to greet the new,

the alien with cheer, to feed the poor:

all lessons good and clear–but hard to do…

….

The Preacher may well be afraid to say it,

but don’t blame failure of the Holy Spirit!

– Steve Shoemaker, Urbana, IL, July 6, 2012.

Steve is a classmate from McCormick Theological Seminary in Chicago, a retired Presbyterian minister, poet, and activist living on the prairie near the University of Illinois. Steve was Pastor and Director of the McKinley Presbyterian Church and  Foundation at the University of Illinois. He concluded his ministry as Executive Director of the University YMCA at the University of Illinois, a vigorous campus student center as big in heart and mind as Steve. His voice is heard every Sunday evening as host of “Keepin’ the Faith” – an interview show on Illinois Public Radio at the University of Illinois, WILL AM.

Verse – “Bee”

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To look once @ a BEE & see

what needs to be seen, will take me

all my days.  BEES & flowers are

near as a sting & scent–& far

beyond my ken as they can BE.

– Steve Shoemaker, Urbana, IL, July 5, 2012

Who is the poorest person you will meet today?

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Written in honor of Dale Robb*.

Who is the poorest person you will meet today?

The senior or teenager who will hand you food

at the drive-through window?  Or tonight when you stay

in a motel, could you leave cash to make the maid

feel good for days?  A tip, gratuity, can let

a worker keep their dignity and pay a bill

as well.  (A teller in a bank, however, can’t

accept a tip–give them fruit, a sweet, they can sell

or eat.)  All folks who earn minimum wage are poor:

be generous, be kind, and share if you have more.

– Steve Shoemaker, Urbana, IL June 18, 2012

*I asked Steve about Dale. Here’s what he wrote:

“Dale Robb is a retired Presbyterian Pastor. For 25 years he served the First Presbyterian Church of Jacksonville, Illinois. Was a Campus Pastor at Miami of Ohio, & Presbyterian missionary in Asia.  McCormick Theological Seminay Alum of the year in the 1980s, University of Illinois grad (1943),attended McKinley Presbyterian Church, student officer in McKinley Foundation.  Retired to Urbana, he & wife, Arlene, attend First Presbyterian Church of Champaign…..  Member of the Reformed Round Table.

“The first question in the verse comes from Dale.”