Tag Archives: Poetry

Rejoicing and Mourning

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Verse – Romans 12:15

We often get the biggest gifts just when
we need them least. When we are poor, folks stay
away. They do not even see us then:
invisible, we starve. We work all day,
all night, but if we strike it rich, we find
new friends who buy us lunch, and bring
us business, give us tips on stocks,
and lend us their vacation homes. Remind
me what the prophet said: we are to sing
and dance and eat the fatted ox
with those who celebrate. But we must then
search out the poor who mourn or else we sin.

– Steve Shoemaker, Urbana, IL, October 25, 2013

“Rejoice with those who rejoice; mourn with those who mourn.”

– Paul’s Epistle to the Romans chapter 12, verse 15.

Editor’s Note: Have you noticed that we don’t talk about the poor any more? Why, do you suppose?

Our hearts can also fly

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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

Verse – Not a Quilt

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The mid-west farmland seen up close,
the only way it should be seen,
is black, then green, then gold and tan.
The corn comes first in narrow rows,
the soybeans planted next will spread
into a leafy blanket for
a while, then brown and shrivel, dry
and seem to die. The corn is bred
to grow a single ear per stalk.
The harvester has different jaws
to chew each crop and spit the grain
in trucks. The farmers stand and talk
of yield and price, machines and laws.
They seldom look to see a plane…

– Steve Shoemaker, Urbana, IL, October 16, 2013

NOTE: Views from the Edge found this photo of Amish farmland from Pennsylvania Dutch country.

Amish farmland quilt

Amish farmland quilt

Verse – limerick for fall

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When I see a mouse in a room,
I know it will soon meet its doom.
I’m quite a big guy,
But I don’t even try,
I just scream for my wife with a broom!

– Steve Shoemaker, Urbana, IL, October 11, 2013

Verse – Missing Sunrise

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At long last “Missing Sunrise” saw the light of day early this morning.

The author shared with his audience last evening that he sometimes lies wake in the middle of the night with “compound words” in his head that compose themselves into a verse or poem. “Sleepy-head, lazy-bones, slug-a-bed” was a combination of three such words that had come to him a few days before, but they were just sitting there in in iPhone, not yet born into a verse. When he shared it this morning, he said, “Let no sleeping doggerel lie…”

Verse– Missing Sunrise

Sleepy-head, lazy-bones, slug-a-bed,
where were you when the sun raised its head?
Purple and violet, rosy-red:
you lie there like you’re already dead…
Get up and greet the day! Live instead
of hiding–cat and dog must be fed!
Alarm dinging, birds are singing, led
by sunlight bringing New Love ahead…

– Steve Shoemaker, Urbana, IL

Thanks, Steve, for a wonderful evening at last night’s Dialogue here in Minnesota.

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.

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!”

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

a tribute to e.e. cummings

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e. e. cummings

e. e. cummings

This one requires some explanation.

Tomorrow six old friends meet in Chicago for “the Gathering, 2013”. This is the 12th such gathering.

“2”

to
(y
ou
and
i)
ge
th
er
ne
ss

– ss (steve shoemaker)