Tag Archives: Steve Shoemaker

Verse – Dreams of Failure

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Why now, in my retirement, age 70,
have I a vivid dream of being at mid-semester
in a college American History class
and not even knowing when the class meets?
I dream I like the teacher, even the subject,
but I had been sick some, otherwise occupied often,
and absent always… I know I cannot catch up.
Where has the class been meeting?
Who will loan me their notes, and why should they?
Do I even own the textbook or have the syllabus?
The mid-term exam is over; the term paper
for the semester is due soon; the extra credit
readings form a mountain of unread pages;
I don’t know where the library is…

(Am I afraid of a Last Judgment
by God? Have I been truant from life?
Have I spent whole days with trivia, with trash,
with momentary pleasures?)

Then I dream of dying in a head-on car crash.

– Steve Shoemaker, Urbana, IL, May 2, 2013 having a bad night at 70 😦

Space to Breathe and Grow

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Verse – “Pruning”

Even under insulating cones,
roses in the Midwest winter die
back and turn brown from the tips of canes
almost to the ground. It’s time for my
pruning shears to clip away the dead
wood and give the living plant some air–
space to breathe and grow. The thorns are red,
black or brown, but still sharp so I wear
gloves of thick cowhide to carry all
cuttings to the backyard burn pile. Fire
turns them all to ashes which I pile
at the foot of every rose bush. There
fertilizer, water, and bonemeal
grow the blooms that make it all worthwhile.

– Steve Shoemaker, Urbana, IL, April 15, 2013

Roger Ebert Acrostic

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MOVIE LOVER
(Acrostic)

Responding quickly to a word

Or face, or plot or place… seeing

Gladly signs of wit, insight and

Even truth… in the dark writing

Relentlessly for all who read…

…

Ever hoping goodness will win

Before greed drags it down… helping

Everyone see beauty in one

Rosebud film frame… celebrating

The movies… overlooking none.

– Steve Shoemaker, Urbana, IL, April 3, 2013

NOTE: Film critic Roger Ebert and Steve Shoemaker were friends.. Steve is a great admirer. The Ebert Film Festival at the University of Illinois has long been one of the highlights of Steve’s year. He has often spoken of the magnificent way Roger continued to review the films and “chat” with Festival attendees by means of his computer after he could speak no longer with his resonant voice.

April Fools’ Day and Chicago Cubs Fans

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There’s nothing worse than being a Cub’s fan. No fans are more loyal. But the Cubs always find a way to disappoint.

Annually…on Opening Day…hope is re-born. But by the end of every season Cubs fans are singing a stanza of Isaac Watts’ hymn, “O God, Our Help in Ages Past”: “Time, like an ever-rolling stream, bears all its sons away; they fly, forgotten, as a dream dies at the opening day.”

Today, the Cubs’ Opening Day is also April Fools’ Day!

Verse — Opening Day, 2013

Our starting pitcher goes for 8
innings without a run. His first
at bat, our first baseman will hit
a home run on the very first
pitch thrown. Our relievers will try
to lose the game–but a pop fly
will strand their runners–yes! We cheer!
A win! THIS WILL BE THE CUBS’ YEAR!

– Steve Shoemaker, Cubs fan, Urbana, IL
(In honor of Harry Lee Strong, also cursed)

Good Friday 2013

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Today is Good Friday.

Two pieces enriched the silence today. The first arrived early this morning.

Testimony
…
In Mark, the earliest account, the name
is given of the man who from the crowd
was forced to lift and carry the crude wood
cross that some carpenter had made the same
day. Simon of Cyrene is named, and then
the names of his two sons–as if they were
still living and could testify that their
father was one of the witnesses when
Jesus was crucified. Women were named
who saw the body buried in the grave,
and later returned to the empty cave
and found the heavy round stone had been rolled
away. Joseph of Arimathea
had given his own family tomb away.
…
But you are skeptical and full of doubt
that Christ is risen–you should check it out.
See that his followers who ran away
now risk their own lives when they sing and pray.
His students now have students. Many saw
him after death. They live and testify.
His movement grows, and some react with awe
and pass the story on, still testify…

– Steve Shoemaker, Urbana, IL, Good Friday, 2013

The second arrived this afternoon.

Click HERE to read Dr. Matthew Boulton’s Good Friday reflection in the Indianapolis Star. Matthew carries on the story as President of Christian Theological Seminary in Indianapolis, Indiana. Matt is the son of Wayne, my seminary roommate and best friend since 1964. “They live and testify. His movement grows, and some react with awe and pass the story on, still testify…”

A Poem for Palm Sunday

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The Hick from the Sticks

My Uncle says that little Nazareth
has only about 300 poor folks
and maybe 20 buildings made of stone…
…
This guy from there with healing hands, worked with
his dad with wood. His neighbors there make jokes
he’s no account–he always lived alone–
…
no girl would have him. But then just a year
or so ago he left home and began
to walk around Judea with a band
…
of followers, just fishermen. We’d hear
wild tales of miracles, of food and wine
he multiplied, of wise things that he said…
…
And now here in Jerusalem today
he comes with crowds who think that he may lead
a revolution. Even I will have
…
a palm branch I can wave, though I must say
I doubt that from that hick town any good
can come. We city folks are hard to save…

-Steve Shoemaker, Urbana, IL, March 24, 2013

Thick heads and the deeper truth

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Micah 6:8

“God has told you people what is good–
and what the Lord requires of you:
do justice, love mercy,
and walk humbly with your God.”
…
One third of the Jewish Bible
is in poetry:
all the prophets, all the proverbs,
Job and all the Psalms.
Fables, sagas, metaphors–we
take it literally?
No, its truth is deeper, wider
than the sea. Our souls
leap or cry, our hearts sing or sigh.
…
We are called to act by holy
words in parallel:
every idea is repeated–
image, example,
contrast…thick heads hit again and
yet again. As sheep
we need a good shepherd or we
stray. For us to keep
ten commandments we need poetry.

– Steve Shoemaker, Urbana, IL, March 4, 2013

Ashes

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On our campus the Priests go where
the students are, so ashes were
imposed right on the Quad as Lent
began. Fat Tuesday was last night,
…
and at the bars we danced and drank
and some hooked-up, so that we stank
of booze and sweat (and worse) if we
slept through our shower-time. Did we
…
imagine penance washed our souls
clean after pushing homeless men
aside on our way home? Or that
…
the school kids we ignored were fools
beyond all help? Forget that when
we failed third grade, some set us right?
…
Perhaps the filthy cross we see
in mirrors all day above our eyes
shows hearts we seldom recognize.

– A Verse by Steve Shoemaker, Urbana, Illinois, Feb. 20, 2013.

NOTE: The university is the University of Illinois in Champaign-Urbana
where Steve still walks the mall after many years as a campus
minister with The McKinley Church and Foundation and as Executive
Director of the Campus Y.

Poet sides with dog in Shoe War?

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“Dog Strikes Back at Cyberspace” brought this reply, or so I thought, from good friend Steve Shoemaker (aka “Shoe” ) in Urbana, Illinois. He seemed to have taken Sebastian’s side in the Shoe War.

Verse  —  “Heal”

I taught my dog to heel,

not so she’d be a slave,

but so she’d always be

safe to walk alongside of me.

…

When first I used a lead,

a leash and collar, she

would pull and jerk and try

to run away.  She thought that I

…

was cruel and mean to make

her suffer so.  But now

she leaves her pen with glee

as we, a team, explore the world.

– Steve Shoemaker, Urbana, IL, January 26, 2012

NOTE: The word “my” was not bolded or italicized in the Steve’s email.  “Views from Edge” bolded and italicized “my” on the assumption that the Verse’s author was holding himself up as a man of virtue in contrast to the bad dog owner who hadn’t trained his dog properly. It turns out that “Dog Strikes Back at Cyberspace” wasn’t anywhere near his radar screen when he penned his Verse. Follow-up email from Steve: “Stop being so self-centered–I was not thinking of you and your sodden shoe at all when I wrote this. I wrote this for ___________” (who had asked him for a poem on healing in preparation for a sermon). 🙂

I think I’ll take a trip to Urbana for training… as a dog trainer…and healing.

Spirit Tree, Urbana, IL (a Tree City)

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…with thanks to John David Mooney

Falling Leaf

It’s best to see at dawn or dusk.

Pines and firs and spruces guard

the tiny park.  The walk of brick

(light and dark) leads to the sound

of falling water.  Then the lights

(L-E-D) that shift and change

from orange to blue lift eyes and hearts,

joining high above a branch,

(no, two or three or four) that point

up and up and up.  The sound behind

Spirit Tree

of running water pulls our sight

from the tree to leaf.  We find

the silver kissing leaves that drip

drops into the pool:  breathe…feel…

– Steve Shoemaker, Urbana, IL, Oct. 29, 2012