Sonnet 9 – Passing Through Menard by Dennis Allen Lange

Friday night, Jan.20, a 17-yr.-old young man, a junior and all-star football player in Menard, was accidentally shot in the back of the head while rabbit hunting.    He died two days later.

The day after he was buried, I drove through the town, making one stop,

Menard, Texas; January 27, 2012; 7:30 A.M.

The sun has risen, giving day a spark;
The river flows within the verdant park;
The channeled water turns the paddle wheel;
It is too early for a church bell’s peal.

At quick and easy small town corner store –
By window, four friends breakfast, passing lore;
A couple wanders in to grab a bite;
The lone cashier efficient and polite.

Few cars, the arteries are low in blood;
One traffic light to stem the trickle’s flood.
A yellow bus begins its morning rounds –
Façade of normalcy in sights and sounds.

A youth’s fresh grave is full as city wakes
To emptiness, for which its sad heart breaks.

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* Menard County (in red) is in an area called the heart of Texas.

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© Dennis Lange and thebardonthehill.wordpress.com, 2012.

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From A Strip Of Blue by Lucy Larcom

       From A Strip Of Blue

I do not own an inch of land,
   But all I see is mine, –
The orchard and the mowing-fields,
   The lawns and gardens fine.
The winds my tax-collectors are,
   They bring me tithes divine, –
Wild scents and subtle essences,
   A tribute rare and free;
And, more magnificent than all,
   My window keeps for me
A glimpse of blue immensity, –
   A little strip of sea.
Here sit I, as a little child;
   The threshold of God’s door
Is that clear band of chrysoprase
   Now the vast temple floor,
The blinding glory of the dome
   I bow my head before.
Thy universe, O God, is home,
   In height or depth, to me;
Yet here upon thy footstool green
   Content am I to be;
Glad when is oped unto my need
   Some sea-like glimpse of Thee.

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image from Wikipedia

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Three Miscellaneous Haiku by Dennis Lange

Image via Wikipedia

I Caramba

An Ipad,
Ipod and Iphone –
I, confused.

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Frozen Goats In A Field

Heads down; eat.
Three hours later –
Heads down; eat.

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Life

Plane arrives;
Drops down, rises up –
Touch and go.

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* The haiku I write are lines of 3-5-3 syllables instead of 5-7-5.

See Haiku article here for explanation, if needed: https://thebardonthehill.wordpress.com/2011/08/08/haiku/

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© Dennis Lange and thebardonthehill.wordpress.com, 2012.

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On A Faded Violet by Percy Bysshe Shelley

           On A Faded Violet

The odour from the flower is gone
   Which like thy kisses breathed on me;
The colour from the flower is flown
   Which glowed of thee and only thee!

A shrivelled, lifeless, vacant form,
   It lies on my abandoned breast;
And mocks the heart, which yet is warm
   With cold and silent rest.

I weep – my tears revive it not;
   I sigh – it breathes no more on me:
Its mute and uncomplaining lot
   Is such as mine should be.

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A Sprung Spring by Dennis Lange

         A Sprung Spring

An estimate says Texas drought
   Killed half a billion trees.
It’s just one way to tally our
   Continued miseries.

Which trees have died? – East Texas pine,
   Mesquites spread ‘cross the state,
The cedars greening central hills,
   Old oaks we celebrate.

We saw some, or we thought we did,
   Before the winter came.
They flickered out like dying coals
   Left by a raging flame.

They drooped; they dried; black branches fell
   As barren as the moon;
And some in fall were premature –
   Brown leaves in early swoon.

And now, with dread, we wait for spring.
   Look for the green that peeps,
That we might see which ones survive,
   And which forever sleeps.

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* The estimate of half a billion trees was 2% of the total number
of trees in the state, which would be 25,000,000,000.

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** Large portions of the state received good rains the past two
days.  The drought has been so bad that it will take floods to
to recover.  Medina Lake, a bit southeast of where I live, is
52 feet below its proper level.

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© Dennis Lange and thebardonthehill.wordpress.com, 2012.

 

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Plague or Play? by Dennis Lange

 

    Days ago (well, more than a week and nigh unto two weeks), I was infected or tagged, depending upon your point of view, with what Kathryn at http://kiwsparks.wordpress.com/ called Mrs. Sparkly’s Ten Commandments (Questions).  My schedule is such that I’m busy in bursts, two per week, with a different type of busy-ness within one set of four days and another type within the other set of three days.  Often, I don’t get something done at one home and I have to play catch up at the other home (long story, as I take care of two elderly parents four days a week).  So, I’ve been tagged with the commandments and I’m “it”, or I’ve been infected with the plague and have been a carrier for days without spreading the pestilence (however you wish to view it).  So, I’ll answer the questions and tag 5 others to carry on, or not.  🙂
 
1.  Describe yourself in seven words.
     Okay, but this may be difficult because….  Oops, I’m out of words already. 
     No, here are 7:
     saved, bookworm, Jack-of-all-trades, satisfied, joyous, mischievous,
     thoughtful

2.  What keeps you up at night?
     Watching reruns of old sit-coms.  🙂   Actually, I sleep pretty well and only
     new problems bother me, and then just  temporarily.

3.  Whom would you like to be?
     A better me.

4.  What are you wearing now?
     t-shirt, jeans, tennis shoes

5.  What scares you?
     What dismays me more than scaring me is the path that this country
     (the USA) is on – destruction.

6.  What are the best and worst things about blogging?
     Best: finding poetic gems written by the gems who blog here.
     Worst: the mining of worthless rock to get to those gems.

7.  What was the last website you looked at?
     a religious forums website

8.  If you could change one thing about yourself what would it be?
     inconsistency

9.  Slankets, yes or no?
     I had to look them up.  No.  I like to move freely and quickly.  If I’m cold
     in the house, I wear a double layer of clothing.

10. Tell us something about the person who tagged you.
      Kathryn at http://kiwsparks.wordpress.com/ has a knack with words that
      prevents any subject from being boring and always grabs and keeps my
      interest.

And now, for 5 others – Tag – you’re it!!! :

1. Maggie at http://maggiemendus.wordpress.com/

2. Anne at http://annedearle.wordpress.com/

3. T at http://steeltee.wordpress.com/

4. Dennis at http://dnobrienpoetry.wordpress.com/   or
     at http://antipodeanbard.wordpress.com/
     (thought I’d advertise his second blog)

5. Linda at http://lindawillows.wordpress.com/

I’ll officially notify you soon.  Some of you may read this before I do
that, however.

Now, I need to catch up on accepting some awards.

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Song Of Saul Before His Last Battle by George Gordon, Lord Byron

       Song Of Saul Before His Last Battle

Warriors and chiefs! should the shaft or the sword
Pierce me in leading the host of the Lord,
Heed not the corse, though a king’s, in your path:
Bury your steel in the bosoms of Gath!

Thou who are bearing my buckler and bow,
Should the soldiers of Saul look away from the foe,
Stretch me that moment in blood at thy feet!
Mine be the doom which they dared not to meet.

Farewell to others, but never we part,
Heir to my royalty, son of my heart!
Bright is the diadem, boundless the sway,
Or kingly the death, which awaits us to-day!

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see I Sam.31

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Haiku Chronicle Of A Hike by Dennis Lange

In late 1962 and early 1963, President John F. Kennedy urged Marines to match Marines of Teddy Roosevelt’s day and prove their fitness in the same way those had.  Many in the American public also took up the challenge.
http://www.jfklibrary.org/JFK/JFK-in-History/Physical-Fitness.aspx?p=2
The following is a haiku chronicle of the participation by some of my friends and me.

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Back-pained man
Encouraged nation
To be fit.

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Walk, to prove
Physical fitness,
Fifty miles.

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To a teen
A fifty mile hike
Sounds like fun.

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Basketball
Ends and track begins –
Oh, I’m FIT!

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Early March,
Driven one hour,
Eighteen back.

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Past noon – warm.
Where were these high hills
When we drove?

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In car lights,
A midnight finish,
And in pain.

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Five friends start,
Two drop – sick, fatigue.
Three finish.

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So, were we
Physically fit?
Not next day.

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Didn’t know
That muscles were there.
Pain says, YES!

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For this teen
Physical fitness
Was not fun.

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* Yes, I made it.

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* The haiku I write are lines of 3-5-3 syllables instead of 5-7-5.
See Haiku article here for explanation, if needed:
https://thebardonthehill.wordpress.com/2011/08/08/haiku/

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© Dennis Lange and thebardonthehill.wordpress.com, 2012.

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The Stars Are True – Anonymous

                    The Stars Are True

We do not know the ports from which we sail,
   Nor in what harbors our frail barques are due;
The waters that we sail are strange as sleep,
   The winds are fickle, but the stars are true.

 

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I’m Not Waiting Up by Dennis Lange

            I’m Not Waiting Up

Somewhere there’s a comet called Halley
Who speeds through the galaxy’s galley.
   Some day he’ll return,
   When I’m in my urn.
For 75 years, he will dally.

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photo by Bobcatnorth (Away) via Flickr

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I’ve used the most common pronunciation of “Halley” above,
in its rhyme with galley.  The actual pronunciation for Edmond
Halley himself might have been “Hawley” as in “haul”.  The next
return of the comet is slated for July 28, 2061.

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© Dennis Lange and thebardonthehill.wordpress.com, 2012.

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