From Illinois to Topsail Island
The sea has been calm and the wind has been light,
The beach house is perfect, the families all right.
We saw dolphins swimming,
The Cubs have been winning,
But the kids all keep asking, “Just where is your kite?”
Steve’s kite on Topsail Island
Steve flies kites all night when the weather is just right. Last night the kite was poetry in motion over the Illinois prairie. Photo by Steve Shoemaker, Urbana, IL, March 16, 2015.
Visual poetry
Verse – “The Kite Flew All Night”
If the wind is steady–
on these plains it often
is– and if the dacron
line has not been eaten
by those grey and tiny
field mice that slip into
my small storage shed, and
if the stake is driven
firmly in the ground, and
if the rip-stop nylon
like a parachute can
hold, and if the fiber-
glass rods bend but do not
break, the sky has color
added and our hearts can
also fly.
– Steve Shoemaker, Urbana, IL, October 20, 2013
Old man , Steve Shoemaker, with kite by soybean field on the Illinois prairie behind his home.
Children run to make a kite
lift into the air. I let
wind pull line from reel and stand
still with a quite lazy smile.
…
Then I wrap the string around
poles I beat into the ground.
If the wind stays resolute,
colors maintain altitude!
…
Day and night kites can fly
far from trees and cars and wires.
I live where the fields are wide,
blue skies hold the windy wind.
…
Far away at night I see
red lights in a line. Turbines
turn and electricity
is made from my friend the wind!
– Steve Shoemaker, Urbana, IL, Dec. 24, 2012
Wind turbines at night
Honda Dream CB 150 Hawk
…
The motorcycle was too small for me,
but was what I could buy with part-time work.
Not loud and rough like the big bikes Harley-
Davidson made, the slim Honda Dream Hawk
would start not with a kick, but with the push
of a button… Quiet, purring, and clean–
liked even by my mother–I would ride
130 miles to college, then
come home the next weekend to see my bride-
to-be.
The bike was under-powered, meant
for in-town rides, so on the roads I’d draft
behind a semi-truck to reach a speed
of 65. The truckers hated that
I stuck so close behind out of their sight,
but I, oblivious, dreamed on my steed…
– Steve Shoemaker, Urbana, IL, host of “Keepin’ the Faith” on Illinois Public Radio WILL at the University of Illinois.
Now he spends his time on the prairie looking for a draft of wind to fly his kite.
Steve waiting for a truck?
Winds can destroy a tower:
Steve with a kite on the IL prairie
the trees can break–no power…
but winds can lift a kite!
…
A hurricane is awesome:
with floods and death quite
gruesome…
but the wind can lift a kite!
…
Tornadoes rage in summer:
what was a house–now lumber…
but the wind can lift a kite!
…
A delta or a fighter,
a diamond or a stunter…
Yes, the wind can lift a kite!
…
A small child can hold the line,
a man’s kite can cheer his wife…
yes, a kite can lift a life…
– Steve Shoemaker, Urbana, IL June 19, 2012
Sunday, April 22, is Earth Day. My friend Steve sent this poem this morning.
Hope it lifts your spirits and causes you to do something crazy for the Earth.
“Earth Day” – Steve Shoemaker, April 20, 2012
Kites - Morro Bay Kite Festival
Earth Day is best observed with string and kite.
A little bit of wind is nice, but not
Required: just hold the spool and run–take flight!
To make a kite, buy line and glue, get
Help by recycling– all the rest is free:
Day-old newspapers can be cut just right,
And sticks from fallen branches, two or three.
Your spirits will fly up just like the kite!
Views from the Edge 