My poem: "Post-Winter non-Blues"

I was a student in Bob Bauch's writing class at Northern Virginia Community College in late 1985 and early 1986. Mr. Bauch liked most of the poem but disliked the ending (the portion I've converted to blue). He said I'd taken "a nice poem and turned it into a boner poem". I've presented this poem (the part in black) on one of my webpages. I let my wife read it last night and she liked the part in blue best! I think I'll take her opinion...

Post-Winter non-BLUES

The great wheel turns, dead winter burns away

the old; leaves appear like green jewel arrays

on trees of coat hangers made. Flowers spray

their need in red and blue and white display.

A special language only bees can read:

They slip into the flowers so smooth - casual

in approach; take a bit, leave another's seed

and flitter off in lust for renewal

I sit to watch the world unfold, with beer

in hand, good friends nearby. Women go by,

their nipples poking through light shirts so clear,

my spirit-it rises, my thoughts, a bee, now fly!

For Bees or Humans tis the time of year

for pollination, sunburn, honey, pollen and beer.

My origional poems and storys for Bob's classes were written on a Commodore 64 (with a wonderful word processor I was given for free) and printe4red on a dot matrix printer. Alas, this word processor did not have a spell checker so I've found usage for spell checkers on the more advanced (and far more expensive!) word processors I've used since.

Holocaust Days of Remembrance

MEMORANDUM FOR ALL COMMERCE EMPLOYEES

From: Secretary Carlos M. Gutierrez

Subject: Holocaust Days of Remembrance

More than one million Jewish children were among the six million European Jews killed by the Nazi regime and its collaborators during World War II. Only a small fraction of Europe’s Jewish children survived, and often it was because of the heroic efforts of men and women of great courage and compassion.

“Children in Crisis: Voices from the Holocaust”is the theme for the annual Days of Remembrance, which will be held from Sunday, April 15 through Sunday, April 22, 2007.

The annual Days of Remembrance, established by Congress in 1980, remind us to be eternally vigilant against bigotry, hatred and indifference. As the Yiddish poet Yitzhak Katzenelson wrote, “The first to perish were the children…From these a new dawn might have risen.”

For more information about the Days of Remembrance, please visit the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum website at www.ushmm.org.

I got this at work...

Ode to Bill

Ode to Bill
(reminisces of an meeting he "chaired")

Smooth words, flowing like honey, gentle
like diarrhea, before your anus gets chaffed.
Words dulling the senses, blinding the mind
till you're lost in a world of sounds.

Dulled, dazed, mesmerized by gentle words
lacking inflection, passion or breaks.
Agreeing with anything said: yes yes!
YES! manning as blindly as a cult member.

Fearing to fall asleep, wondering why not;
praying I've not sold out totally!
Poor zombie! Dead to the world, hoping, praying
the coat of honey colored dung will wear off.

I plan on sending a copy of this to "Bill' when I retire another 5 to 7 years.

HILDA SNORZ