The Winter Olympics

Pyeong Chang 2018 

The Winter Games, so full of life

The skis, the skates, the bobsled track

A time to shelve the world’s strife 

The Winter Games, so full of life

Young ice dancers, man and wife 

Strive to shine and lead the pack 

The Winter Games, so full of life

The skis, the skates, the bobsled track

Lindsey Vonn

Down the slope, eighty miles an hour 

We’ve never seen such strength and power

Cutting corners, thrill upon thrill

Lindsey Vonn, the queen of downhill 

Over eighty World Cup titles

Damage to her limbs and vitals

Many a crutch, many a pill

Lindsey Vonn, the queen of downhill 

Competing now at thirty-three 

Her last Olympics, this must be 

The skier’s credo, speed and will 

Lindsey Vonn, true queen of downhill  

   On the Olympic Ice: A Diamonte

                  Speed-Skater

               Lean,  muscular

        Dodging, darting, lunging

Race, competition, music, costume

       Leaping, twirling, gliding

               Lithe, graceful  

                  Ice-Dancer

Life Puzzles (No. 2)

Marriage, that most curious of journeys

Complexity — consternation — confusion

Two different persons, one single union

Like a ship in a storm

Or the kiddies at play

How does this smorgasbord even survive?

My wife and I, born into alternate worlds

She from Philadelphia; I, the North Woods 

Friends are amazed, think we’re alien beings

Yet we’ve stuck together for

            Fifty

                        Odd

                                    Years

My wife came of age on the Main Line

A student of classics at the High School for Girls

French Literature, Balzac and Baudelaire

Weekend outings at the Philly Art Museum

Or Wanamakers for tea sandwiches and pink lemonade

The passions of her soul: The Opera, The Symphony

And following the Queen and her flock

Meanwhile

my family lived in the central U.P.

A house made of pine in a forest on the river

Youthful snippets:

            Camping at Mason Park

            Shooting hoops with my brother on the snow and ice

            Roy Rogers and Dale Evans at the Saturday matinee

The highlight:  The U.P. State Fair at Escanaba

            The demolition derby…the freak show…the Country Music Cavalcade

And most thrilling of all: The Green Bay Packers!!!

So how did we come together?  — such a blur

But she thought the North Woods romantic

And I found the Big City EYE-POPPING!

We’ve attended the opera for all the years since

Resistant at first but

            I’ve slowly improved 

Late August we go to the county fair

which sets my heart thumping

The goats and the sheep, bloomin’ onions, the bumper cars

My wife loves the rabbits and the ferris wheel

If it weren’t for me, she might have missed out

I think this must be the key secret of marriage:

Each brings different treats to the table

The First Day of Classes

Autumn quarter had just begun

I was gathering myself in my office

They assigned me to teach Geology Two

I knew nothing about it, felt nauseous

I looked at my watch, it was 9:58

My class was scheduled for ten

 I frantically searched for some lecture notes

Finding none, I grabbed paper and pen

I raced across campus to find my room

But they’d locked the entire first floor

I called the office to get some help

They sent me to Room 404

Now  it was seventeen after ten

 Over half of my students had left

I nodded to the class and hemmed and hawed

I had trouble even catching my breath

My topic for the day — the origin of earth

This was something I knew nothing about

I told a feeble joke about getting drunk

The back row stood up and walked out

The rest of the class just stared at me

They were shocked that their teacher was a fraud

My face turned red and my heart was pounding

My whole being was visibly flawed

I said a few words about summer vacation

I wanted to scream, “Please stay here”

More of the students were packing their books

I too wished that I could disappear

Finally there was only one student left

A red-haired young woman with glasses

She said she hoped I’d get better

Geology was the worst of her classes

At that very moment I woke from my dream

There weren’t any students in sight

I haven’t taught a class for umpteen years

You’d think I’d be over the fright 

Square Thinking

The key to Eternal Happiness?

It’s plagued our poets from

            Ovid

               to

            Seuss

But thanks to the wily Internet

We have gleaned the elusive secret: ORDER

 And the most Orderly object of all:     THE SQUARE

                * * * * * * *

                *                *

                *                *

                *                *
                * * * * * * *

Symmetry

Quadruplicity

Uniformity

Angularity

Reciprocity

Equilibrium

To assemble an immaculate square:

(A) Place teeny dots at the corners

(B) Draw the straightest of lines

One pair horizontally

Two others vertically

(C) Take a deep breath, sit back, admire

Slothful critics are known to assert

That the so-called “circle” is superior

Balderdash

Lunacy

Vipers

Human existence is enriched by squares:

*Tables

  *Paintings

    *Checkerboards

      *Carpets

        *Saltines

          *Quilts

            *Styrofoam boxes

              *Window panes

                *Rubicon cubes

                   *Pillows

                     *Kitchen tiles

                       *Wendy’s burger patties

If you happen to think I’m

a weirdo obsessed

Add a new square to your life —

Bid farewell to despair!  

Trees of River House

The maples stood outside our dining room door

October, so brilliantly red

Their seedlings spun like little whirligigs

Then in winter we feared they were dead

The willow was our childhood favorite 

It sat at one corner of our yard 

A wonderful tree for us kids to climb 

Though reaching its top could be hard

The Norway pines were so tall and straight

But their cones contained goo that was sticky 

We used two Norways for goal posts

Two others held a swing for sweet Vicki 

The oaks were our most majestic trees

Their acorns could fill a large barrel 

We used those nuts for our acorn wars

One entered our yard at great peril

The birches were perched on our riverbank

Clothed in their elegant bark

We’d peel it off to write secret notes

Each tree  with its own watermark

We had a box elder on our front lawn

It too was a fine tree to climb

We lost a chameleon on that tall tree

I still dream we’ll find it sometime

The cedars had the most delicate cones

The deer came and fed in the night

These were trees with a fragrant smell

They grew where the sun was less bright

The blue spruce was a most elegant tree 

Its branches were too dense to climb 

We thought it our year-round Christmas tree 

So Santa was near all the time

The tag alder, sadly, were a second-rate tree

They grew in the swamp in profusion

I used them to build my secret camp

It was alder that gave me seclusion 

The sumac lived in our field in the back

Its fruits were bright spikes of red

I’d bring a bouquet to my mother

Though she actually liked trillium instead 

The Drunkard's Lament

            Many

            Days

            When

            Fate

            Drew

            Nigh

           I left

          Judgment

         Far behind

        Shutting out

       The dark world

      Drowning my mind

     In piquant liquids

     Denying my reality

     Whiskey so lulling

     Comforting my soul

     Blotting out truth

     I’d rather not see

     Later I passed out

     Slept on the floor

     Dreamt of my youth

     And cheerier times

     Oh the splendor of
     Bourbon and Scotch

     Taking me off to a

     World more hopeful 

     Ensuring my solace

     Dulling the senses

     Escaping existence

     

Dog Heaven: A Sonnet

The other day I placed a call to Mike

I asked him how it was up there in Heaven

He said he’d found so many things to like

He’s fallen for a Schnauzer who's named Bevin

His brother Duffy then got on the phone 

Heaven’s proving swell for Duffy too

Each morning he awakes to find a bone 

Plus shoes and glasses and other stuff to chew

I mourn the dogs’ departure every day 

They were the very keystone of my life 

It helps a tiny bit with my dismay

To tell myself they’re fine in afterlife 

I’m sad I’ll never have a dog again

Perhaps that’s why I dream of times back then