Tag Archives: verse

Verse – Sonnet

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A sonnet is made up of fourteen lines
With just ten syllables in each of them–
Which means for people reading on their phones
Some lines are split–which really is a shame.

Almost all of old sonnets had a rhyme
On every other line for the first twelve.
Which works just fine almost all of the time,
But sometimes words are very hard to melve…

The first four lines of this end with “half-rhyme.”
This is a trick that helps a poet make
More choices–not repeating all the time
The same old rhyme… A sonnet may then take

An image to go far beyond the words–
Though some seem quite forced: two flying birds!

– Steve Shoemaker, Urbana, IL, New Years Day, 2014

No coach ever

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There is no “U” in TEAM,
so I’ll not pass to you.
Winning isn’t everything,
it’s the lonely thing.
All for none,
and none for all!
When the going gets tough,
the tough say “Enough!”

– Steve Shoemaker, Urbana, IL, Dec. 22, 2013

Verse – Caregiver

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as teacher minded others children
and cared for her own
her spouse of forty years was sick ten
then left her alone
by dying way too young
…………………………….his special
brother needed aid
with meds and moving thinking mental
health have his bills paid
her mother needed visits daily
she was ninety-eight
all thought god treated her unfairly
she just smiled at fate

– Steve Shoemaker, Urbana, IL, December 19, 2013

Verse – “Blessed Mary”

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The CHOIR magnificently sang
Bach’s LOUD complex “Magnificat!”
The orchestra was small, but rang
Out BRASS and DRUMS and ORGEL that
Reverberated through the Hall.

That GOD was GREAT there was no doubt,
The fugue repeated that till all
Could not help but join in the SHOUT!

(but then the oboe d’amore stood
and quietly began with D
a tune of slave and poverty…
the cello cello cello droned

and high above soprano mild
sang about the coming child.)

– Steven R. Shoemaker & Margaret R. Grossman, December 13, 2013

Verse – Stimulus and Response

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eight adults were at the party
all were sharing air and stories
three were couples two were singles
married folks heard few surprises
tales were old though some were funny

one would listen as their partner
heard a second use a keyword
and would know the family legend
for the thousandth time told retold
the same pauses the same laughter

the same pride that in our family
there was such an odd character

– Steve Shoemaker, Urbana, IL, December 7, 2013

Chocolate Chips

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Although I eat a small handful
right from the bowl (poured there because
there is no crinkly sound tell-tale),
just like Grandpa D did – cookies
need just half as much as are called
for on the yellow package (they,
of course, each year want more chips sold
than were the year before), so I
achieve the perfect dough-chip mix
by not following directions –
just like the old man when he’d fix
them (he taught me sales resistance…)
but then he’d put the Nestle chips
he’d saved into the Cream of Wheat
(you can’t eat too much chocolate.)

– Verse “Chocolate Chips”
– Steve Shoemaker, Urbana, IL, October 29, 2013

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

Teaching my Daughter how to Drive

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Her brother let the clutch out much too fast
the first time he tried to start up the van
in the parking lot of the store that closed.
I told her how he lurched and jerked and ran
over the orange cones that I took to use
from soccer practice as a parking space.
The VW died, he swore, but tried
again and then again–giving more gas
and slooowly letting up the clutch. She learned
and did the opposite: the engine roared
as she held in the clutch and mashed the gas
pedal to the floor. I yelled to be heard
above the engine noise, “Let up, let up!”
and as she pulled both feet up, the car died,
of course. She threw the keys at me and cried.

She took the class at school and got an “A.”

– Steve Shoemaker, Urbana, IL, October 9, 2013

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!”