Foundations
No matter how solid
Crumble in time
*
Photo: Dwight L. Roth
Shared on d’Verse Poets Pub open link night
Month: March 2022
The Summer of ’69
We were in love…
‘It was the summer that men first walked on the moon.’
I was going home with Ruth to meet her parents
We drove across country with friends…
2500 miles in a Ford Falcon
stopping in Illinois so they could be in a wedding,
then driving all night to Iowa City.
It was definitely not your usual trip
But, in five days we reached Edmonton, Alberta.
We both still had miles to go to reach our destination.
It was a wonderful trip, with tubing on the river
canoe rides on the lake, and a boat ride down river;
and, of course, spending time with her family.
The Apollo Moon Mission was in progress
Neighbors invited us to their house to watch
as Neal Armstrong took that first step onto the moon.
It was a little 13 inch black and white TV
with a fuzzy picture,
but we knew history was being made
in many ways in the summer of ‘69
We were married after Christmas in 1969
Photo:from the family album and Jim Bowmen
Today at d’Verse, Linda gave us the first lines of twelve different books and asked us to pick one to include in our poem. I chose ‘It was the summer that men first walked on the moon.’– Paul Auster, Moon Palace, Faber and Faber 1989. I have so many great memories from that summer.
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Dreams of Cherry Blossoms
In our travels last weekend, we once again saw many family members we had not seen since before Covid. My nephew has a cute young girl who is full of life and lots of imagination. She told her parents she wanted to go to Japan to see the Cherry Blossoms. But instead of making that trip they came up with a compromise and drove to Washington, DC the next day where they saw these beautiful Cherry Blossoms in full bloom.
Cherry blossoms bloom
Lighting trees both near and far
Making young girls smile
*
Photo: Cedric Roth
Haibun Monday at d’Verse, with Frank Tassone giving us a Cherry Blossom prompt for spring.
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Waiting for Spring (haiku)
Remnants of winter
Decorated with green moss
Nesting in a post
*
Photo: Dwight L. Roth
Pennsylvania Dragon
Feeling a bit nostalgic this evening, I decided to repost this poem I wrote as a song in 2007 that describes the coal train as I remember it from childhood. You can see in the painting, it was an awesome site in the early evening as it rolled along the Monongahela River on its way to the steel mills of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. When it roared through the coal mining patches you could feel the ground shaking and rattled the windows in the houses. I called it the “*Pufferbilly Dragon” because of its great power and the visual effects of the smoke and steam coming out of it.
Refrain: Steel wheels keep on turning
Keeping rhythm perfect time.
Hauling coke from the ovens
Hauling coal from the mines.
*
Down along the winding river, Monongahela was its name
Comes the “Pennsylvania Dragon,” Belching smoke, shooting flames.
Engine 29’s a coming, see the light and hear the steam.
As she passes Martin crossing, you can hear her whistle scream.
****
Whistle blowing at the crossing, black smoke pouring from her stack.
On to Pittsburgh she’ll be rolling, tomorrow she’ll be coming back.
Counting coal cars as she passes, waving to the engineer.
100 cars hauling heavy, red caboose at the rear.
****
Now the trains of my childhood are all silent, lost in time.
And those “Pufferbilly Dragons” are just memories on my mind.
Down along the winding river no more smoke or shooting flames.
Just the rumble of the diesel, but it’s just not quite the same.
*
Painting: Dwight L. Roth
The term Pufferbilly originated in the UK as you can read here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Puffing_Billy_(locomotive)?msclkid=b95020ebac7911ec87584c97ca538acc
Love Note on a Knothole
While in Pennsylvania this past weekend, I went with my brother to see a couple of covered bridges. At Cabin Run we stopped to take photos. As we were walking through the bridge, we noticed a plastic rose hanging from a knothole on the bridge wall. I do not know what motivated this person to leave the note at the bridge. Perhaps it is a place they used to drive through when they were dating. It could be that Bill passed on or they broke up the relationship. We will never know.
A rose and a note
Loving sentiments posted
Left on a knothole
You can see the rose hanging on the far wall of the bridge!
Photos: Dwight L. Roth
Lick the Paper
There was a time in American history
When paper caused the dumping
of a shipload of British tea.
*
Stamps of every kind left their mark
on taxes, certificates, and deeds.
*
Commemorative stamps collected
or licked were put on letters.
Can you taste the glue?
Stamp Art: Dwight L. Roth
Today at d’Verse, De Jackson asked to think about paper and its uses and write a 44-word Quadrille. I chose stamps. They’ve been used in so many ways throughout recent history.
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Mourning or Celebrating
New buds surround light
Filled with the hope of springtime
In church loved ones mourn
Remembering a life well lived
Celebrating family ties
Photo: Dwight L. Roth
Yesterday we gathered with family and friends to remember the life of my brother’s wife. She was a beautiful strong woman, who spent 35 years of her life serving others as an Intensive Cardiac Care nurse. She was loved by all who knew her. Though we mourned her loss, we celebrated the gift she was to all of us.
Shadows of Sadness
Spring sun shines brightly
Skies blue and cottony over head
Yet, shadows of sadness surround me
*
Life’s journey brought me here
Overcoming through ups and downs
Yet, shadows of sadness surround me
*
So quickly our good life gets disrupted
Many hide as tanks roll and bombs explode
As shadows of sadness surround them
*
As men take a stand and mothers flee
Innocent people die daily from blind destruction
And, shadows of sadness surround me
*
Power corrupts and divides us
Greed and Evil are Siamese twins
Yet, hope rises in the sadness that surrounds us
*
People with hope believe in their cause
Willing to die rather than loose their freedom
And, hope for their children empowers them…
*
In spite of the sad shadows that surround us all
*
Photo: Dwight L. Roth
I am sharing this tonight on the d’Verse poets open link night.
Join us at: https://dversepoets.com
Roth Poetry 