Category Archives: Steve Shoemaker

A Hopeful Prayer for Healing

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A prayer for a sick person named “C______”:

Gracious God,

We know how to pray for sick C______, and, indeed, for anyone (including ourselves). Your child, Jesus, taught us to pray for daily bread, forgiveness, for You not to lead us into temptation, AND TO DELIVER US FROM EVIL!

Cancer is evil (as are heart attacks, brain tumors, diseases beyond number, and your last enemy, death.) Deliver C______, and us all. We pray for healing and full health.

We also know, however, even Jesus did not heal everyone, that not all His prayers were answered, even His prayer “If possible, may this cup pass from me.”

If healing is impossible, remind us of Psalm 23, and that in the shadow of death, we can know You are with us, fear no evil, and be comforted. Amen.

  • Steve Shoemaker, Urbana, IL, October 7, 2015

Verse – From Mid-West Farms

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Verse — From Mid-West Farms

…In Sidney, Illinois, the Elevator
waits for grain. The corn, the beans,
arrive in wagons or in trucks the farmers
drive. The loaded truck is weighed.
…The boy was only nine when first he steered the Farmall tractor with the corn
in wagons from grand-daddy’s farm
to here. Now twenty-five tons fill
his semi-truck. The probe descends
to measure moisture in the beans–
13 point 3 percent, a little wet,
but very close.
…The operators flip the switch on side
of truck, the grain descends through grates, the augers twist, the fans begin
to dry soybeans until the days the trains
arrive. In 20 seconds each train car is filled.
…The empty truck is weighed, the receipt
given to the driver. Shift, accelerate, and steer…go get another load. From 6 a.m.
to 9 p.m., the harvest days are long,
but it is happy work.

  • Steve Shoemaker, Urbana, IL, October 6, 2015

Published with apologies to Steve for insertion of … in place of indentation.

Verse – Thanks to a Longfellow

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Lives of women all remind us
They can do all that men can.
And departing, leave behind us
Children’s footprints in the sand.

  • Steve Shoemaker, Urbana, IL, September 20, 2015

Verse – The Ubiquiphone

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The Ubiquiphone

The thermometer outside would tell
The temperature, heaven or hell.
The paper brought news.
The neighbors shared views,
But now I just look at my cell.

The mobile that I use instead
Of books that I often had read
Has also replaced,
Has simply erased
The facts that I had in my head.

My computer I never go near–
I’ve not seen my desk for a year.
The next phone that I buy
I’m afraid it will try
To make even my spouse disappear!

  • Steve Shoemaker, Urbana, IL, Sept. 13, 2015

Verse – Kansas

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on the prairie
the wind turbines
can be seen
for twenty-five miles

after dark the red lights
in unison
seem to blink
as blades slowly turn

a football field high
the inscribed circle
is a full acre
echoing irrigation

from the air
only the green circles
can be seen
windmills disappear

  • Steve Shoemaker, Urbana, IL, September 12, 2015

Verse (Limerick) – The 20-Year-Old

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The 20-Year-Old Video Gamer

His braces and pimples have fled–
His face is now handsome instead–
Yes, and now it appears,
But for all his teen years,
We’ve seen only the back of his head!

20-Year-Old Video Gamer

20-Year-Old Video Gamer

  • Steve Shoemaker, Urbana,IL, Sept. 4, 2015

Verse – ?

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Question Mrk

Question Mrk

Sending a son or daughter off to college is hard for a parent.

Steve captured the sentiment in this piece “written in 1988 when my son, Daniel, left home to go to Northwestern University in Evanston, IL.”

 

 

 

To choose a title first is such an act
of pride (as if one knows just where a thought
will go.) Is “Saying Goodbye to Our Son”
a better choice than “Letting Go?” And when
is specificity superior
to breadth? Do only parents know the fear
of being left behind when children leave?
Is every parting death, a tiny grave?

A title should invite…entice…alert
the reader to the text. But what comes next?
That is the question. Eyes will open wide
and see new truth. Will truth lead to the good?
We hug and hope and wave goodbye. The path
twists back and then away (“A Brand New Birth?)

  • Steve Shoemaker [Published in Presbyterian Outlook]

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Verse – Clandestine Communication

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We used to pass notes while in school,
The teachers said “No! There’s a rule!”
But students today
Will have their own say:
A smart phone helps them play the fool!

  • Steve Shoemaker, Urbana, IL, August 29, 2015

Verse – Old Friends

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Old Friends

New information
From impeccable sources
Has twisted our memories
Lowered our esteem
Even given us a taste of disgust
But what have they heard about us

  • Steve Shoemaker, Urbana, IL, August 26, 2015

Verse – Pre-Disastered

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Pre-Disastered

The term from the insurance industry
is based on mathematics I do not
know at all: such as probability
analysis. When Garp said, “We should not
have fear to buy the house because a plane
crashed in to it, it’s pre-disastered–not
very likely to happen twice…”–the plain
truth he ignored is that a coin is not
more or less likely to be “heads” because
the time before it came up “tails.” Do not
believe your lung cancer can halt the cause
of heart disease. Even a prayer cannot
insure long life: we say, “Insha’Allah…

  • Steve Shoemaker, Urbana, IL, August 22,2015