Appreciating Readers

Appreciating Readers

Thank You ! Mary Bagwell, for writing that you enjoy my poems and urging me to keep writing them. I'm sorry, but you don't join a long list of my admirers, in fact, that list is so short it embarrasses me. Those, who write verse for pleasure, surround themselves in obscurity.

Too often someone like me, a farmer by occupation and a civic/municipal activist by choice, doesn't dabble in mental agility preoccupations, such as, poetry. Although my ancestral countryman, Robert Burns, referred to himself as the Plowman's Bard and, when he wasn't chasing women, he was farming while oft in his head he was composing verse.

Retired now many years, it wasn't until my wife, Connie, bought me an iPad a few years ago, so I could distribute my poems and essays electronically, that I felt comfortable writing daily. I am not educated in poetry and, I'm sure many of those who are, look down on my attempts as immature and frivolous.

I receive Poetry magazine monthly and read it cover to cover religiously. Reading newly written poems in Poetry magazine really puts me in my place. To me, today's poems are mostly unreadable and certainly not understandable by enlarge. Try as I may, modern poetry is not very reader friendly, so if you're out of the circle of the learned, you're like a fish out of water.

I've resolved myself to write for myself, post my efforts and, if anyone likes to read them also, I am flattered. Thank You again, Mary. Sadly, age will become my final arbiter, the true determiner of the time constraint lashed to all of our feet. But now, with my writing out in cyberspace, words in verse may last for an eternity, never to disappear, but to reappear upon someone's whim to connect with a deceased ancestor. If they're
determined to be readable or not isn't my decision to make, it's the reader who makes that ultimate choice.

Ronald C. Downie

It Depends Upon

It Depends Upon

It all depends upon, Henny Penny's sky falling,
And Jacques Cousteau's blue oceans swelling ;

Depends upon, The Rolling Stones' songs playing,
Guardian Angles' protection finds safety amazing ;

Upon, John Updike past his Endpoint, again rising,
Evan Brandt penning each story his Dad's not writing;

The Mercury attending to the poor's needs unending,
And leaders in Washington their ignorance extending;

It all depends upon, the morning sun clearly rising
In a dedicated arc across our sky its energy giving;

Depends upon, grandsons picking up batons dropping,
Left over from attempts to keep live music rocking;

Upon, the fingers at their instruments still plucking,
Viewing the World from a lens in need of adjusting;

Within you, trees feel at ease, grasslands swaying,
Gardens seek your pleasure, soil rich for playing.

Ronald C. Downie

Past - Future

Past - Future

Prayer - sending a message to your God -
Poetry - sending a message to a stranger -

Each from within seeking an ear without,
One strictly personal, the other universal.

Taught prayer universal when young, while
Through nursery rhymes, are taught poetry.

Maturing minds grapple with their humanity ;
Many to an unknown pray, some seek expression.

Scripting words into phrases developing themes
Jogs mental synapses into action creating verse.

Then verse pulses Earth's vibrations as thought.
Thought, caught in both worlds, real or illusory,

Is to each person's make up as breathing or seeing,
More deeply to some, but to others diversionary.

The pinnacle of thought is wisdom, original thought.
Prayer, touted as faith based, reinforces the past ;

While poetry, gleaned from thought, seeks a future ;
It needs you to write it out, to bring it the light of day.

Ronald C. Downie

State Of The Union

State Of The Union

Unlike my grandson, Connor Kurtz, a freshman at Catholic University, Washington, DC. who has full use of his hands and legs but, I'm sure, used neither last night at our President's State Of The Union Address. Connor and I are diametrically opposed in our political leanings : Connor would have sat in stoic deadpan with the other Republican lemmings following their leader, John Boehner, pouting ; even though I no longer can jump up and clap like hell, I favored the Presidents message.

What was your federal representative doing ? Was he or she like Connor or like me ? Mine, Jim Gerlach, I'm sure, was nonplussed in his obscurity toeing the Tea Party line wrapped in his party's banner hollering "NO"!

His Judgement Day comes in 2014 elections !

Ronald C. Downie

Wanted

Wanted :

Boarder collies, not docile sheep,
Herders, not the herded ;

Posses, not the hotly pursued,
Runners after, rather than runners from ;

Leaders, not meek followers,
Out front, instead of holders back ;

Lookers in the box, not lookers out,
Progressives, not status quo duds ;

Thinkers, not dull song hummers,
Eureka makers, rather than iTuners ;

Winners, not sap faced losers,
Blue ribbon receivers, instead of also rans ;

You, not the guy behind the tree,
A reader of this stuff, not comic book fanatics.

Ronald C. Downie

Eagle Verses Big Bird

Eagle Verses Big Bird

The eagle, life so fragile its eggs cracked,
Could not mature exposed to DDT,
Which until stopped by Federal agents,
Was everyone's spray chemical of choice.

This sixty year battle seems nearly won.
The eagle, symbol of our pride and strength,
The aggressive beak, piercing eyes, muscle
Overlapping muscle for the kill, groomed.

Many countrymen are militarist
Bent on pursuing their hawkish death dreams.
They seem oblivious to the eagle's
Earlier plight by Man's own ignorance.

The Eagle, the Flag, the Cross : are symbols ;
Each will stir man's blood to spill even more.
Their World is male dominant, ego driven,
Power imposing power, trample weak.

What has been the plight every militant
Country that history has had to endure ?
Its downfall - external or internal -
The World, slowly but surely, is leaning

Toward Peace. Yes ! Big Bird's teachings are so
Effective, that his forty year long term
Of instruction swept the World. A cadre
Of peaceful followers praise his teachings.

The Peace Corp and Doctors Without Borders
Do good, while doing no harm, free of guns.
Theirs is an outgrowth of a populous
Grounded in education, dogma free.

They project America's greatest wealth,
Freedoms our Constitution guarantees,
Which are universal to all free Men
And Women no matter their birth country.

Like the Eagle's egg - tenuous, fragile,
The World moves toward peace, slowly pacing.
It will take interaction of people
Giving up egos while blurring their turf.

Leaders better wake from their own malaise
Which draws them to do nothing, status quo.
If the World is to survive ever, forever,
Pease must rule the minds of common people.

Ronald C. Downie

I follow-I also complain!

I follow-I also complain!

Being right of center, I'm watching Paul Krugman on Up With Chris Hayes, MSNBC, 8AM-10AM, this Sunday morning. Krugman is a Pied Piper for liberals like me on the country's economic health. I lean forward with him in understanding the USA best increase spending on generating jobs rather then by going deeper into recession with more austerity.

Chris Hayes has had one of the more cutting edge political programs on Sunday morning's viewing schedule. Realizing this, I question why he has 800 calorie donuts on the table in front of his guests rather than apple or orange slices for them to munch on ?

Perception follows a television personality not only with what they say, but, how they're shown in their surroundings on the empowering screen of almighty television. Toughen up Chris, no more powered goodies.

Ronald C. Downie