YOU CAN OBSERVE A LOT
JUST BY WATCHING. --Yogi Berra

Monday, May 20, 2013

SUMMERTIME--AND THE LIVIN' IS...



spring-fed pond about ½ mile from the farmhouse--my favorite place

splash!
...and how, now remember,
recalling those days...where have they went?
loved summer, despised winter.
consoled, i, by nice witch's wand
disguised as wafting breeze.
while slept by spring-fed pond
"PLOP!" jumping fish here, there,
conspiring, all, as heaven-sent

where she?
left me?
so far ago
shall never know.
splash!

ah! peace.
lost forever?
yet never cease!
existing-- 
like lost love?
no! 
like love found
anew.
you...

more splashing
my horse drinking
at water's edge
front hooves sinking
in beautiful mud,
awakening me
to new day.
already high
in blue sky
welcome sun
and i?

now re-living, savoring
every musical note of
lovely aloneness.
my ninth summer;
suitless swimming,
hearing, humming,
birds singing,
shhhhhh!

all so quiet.....
this--between you and me, luv.
(nobody else should ever know!)
beethoven's great ninth symphony
silently singing every note of
in my head, in my tent,
in my silent world of
peace...serenity...
SSSPLAAASHHH!

--steveroni

to be posted in a favorite place:
dVerse Poets Pub
after 3 pm every tuesday
this IS week #97



Friday, May 10, 2013

IT'S THE "LITTLE" THINGS


"If small things--for me--do not exist, 
the great is not great." 
- Jose Ortega and Steve E


Jungfrau Mountain Range, Switzerland

AWESOME!

six legs so small--moving speadily
across rock wall, moss-covered,
seems lost. comes thunder, rain.
stare i, in wonder

delightfully formed leaf
detaches itself, life spent.
perfection beyond belief...
i, in wonderment

all creation, constructed in spheres,
often wondered about that, too...
thick steel girders, huge wooden piers.
admiring, i. how about you?

water, air intrigue me
as do moons and stars.
as homo sapiens i "see"
black holes, quasars...

now i've stopped pondering,
no longer in wonder i stare.
wondering has maneuvered to awe
--finally, of God...aware

--steveroni 
3.10.2013

Wednesday, May 8, 2013


OKLAHOMA is the first musical written by the team of
composer richard Rodgers and librettist Oscar Hammerstein.
The original Broadway production opened March 31 1943.
A box-office smash, it ran for an unprecedented 2,243 performances


This is one favorite spot in the play for me:

ANNIE:

"With you it's all er nuthin.
All fer you an nuthin' fer me!
But if a wife is wise, she's gotta realize
that men like you are wild and free.
So I ain't gonna fuss, ain't gonna frown,
Have your fun, go out on the town,
Stay up late and don't come home till three.
And go right off to sleep, if you're sleepy,

There's no use waitin' up for me...."


Saturday, May 4, 2013

Love, a Vignette

Human Love is about as understandable
as the galaxy pictured below, 
although some will say they "know" both!

This poem came to me while riding
home from a meeting today...and it
is one of the FEW of mine that I like!
andromeda galaxy

LOVE: OBSERVATON

That love in your heart?
ear does not hear
through all those so smart
words, via shiny monitor.

A voice may, of necessity
deliver messages of levity,
or profound promises
most delicately gossamer.

BUT.......

True love shows its
unmistakable self
between sweetest gazing
of two pair eyes,
so wise, no lies...
then it is, love can express
in kiss and caress
.......Exquisitely

--Steveroni
4 May 2013

(Real Love IS an action word. 
It is consistant and constant "doing" 
for another and others, 
in complete absence of self)

Tuesday, April 30, 2013

OPEN LINK NIGHT: LISTEN, MY CHILD, AND YOU SHALL...



Photo credit: Anna's son

HEAR!


child, what do you see?
what attracts your stare?
i believe that
only God is aware
what one day you'll be.


what put me there

in front of you
to catch this moment
of light, as yourself
you see in the lens?


grandchild of Anna

loved son of
loving son
who shall shoulder-carry
the family name, the tree.


be always ready...and aware.



each cat meeow, splashing fish,

running ant, sweet birdsong,
every Peep who comes along
teaches, reaches inside your brain...
learn to laugh, cry, live, love,


when pride says, "I KNOW"...dare!



a goal for you, baby one, be

Honest, Open-minded, Willing.
it is the HOW of living well.
and with your allure, I'm sure
a pleased God will say
you lived a life of
unending day.
fulfilling...


--steveroni

4/29/2013

Over @ dVerse Poets it is OpenLinkNight #94
--and the doors open Tuesday at 3 pm EST. HERE

Monday, April 22, 2013

YA NEVER KNOW

For Open Link Night, week #93 at dVerse Poets Pub
Postings begin Tuesday at 3 PM EST


EDNA WAS A BIKER-GIRL!

 A TOY CAN TAKE YOU 
ANYWHERE

Picture age four, a little boy
to whom Santa brought a toy
fiddle. Word rhymed with
diddle, as in "Hey Diddle, Diddle
The Cat and His Fiddle...
cow jumped over the moon, and
dish ran away with the spoon..."

I positively hated the violin
Hated my mother--a sin--
which led to many years
of torture, tears and fears.

SKIP from age 4 to 75
Hardly a man is now alive...?*

In nursing home a violin plays--
and it is ME, some days!
Playing for the old folks,
conjuring maybe a memory.

Smallest old lady (Edna) in wheelchair bent
over, as if God might send for her
that very afternoon. Eyes closed, nothing
moved...soundless room...just we two
alone (with about 40 others!), me
on floor, kneeling so I might see her face
and she, restrained with a brace, still in
mode of sightlessness.

I said to The Spirit--"What shall I play?"
Floated out from my violin that day, a
favorite "Ave Maria" which would say
most honest truth known, to Edna,
new Friend, most smallest lady--who
opened her blues, squinted at me. 

As we "connected" I saw a tear--only one,
roll down beautiful age-pruned place
along that creek where nose meets face.
What Utter joy--HOLY JOY I felt, as
her joyful memory-tears followed the one...

Thank You, God the Father
and Thank You, my Mother
for Gifts you both gave me that day,
Gifts for me to now give away......

As nursing aide rolled her away, I felt something taken from me.
Several days later, she was in heaven with her real Sancta Marie.
A nurse had whispered,
"We wondered if she would ever again
look out from her head bent there...
whether might once more shed a tear."


LAGNIAPPE:

...and every now and then, finding myself in a dark alley of life

I remember that day
and ask Edna to pray
for me.
--steveroni

This happened several years ago at                              

Moorings Park, Naples Florida

*from Longfellow's

Midnight Ride of Paul Revere

Tuesday, April 16, 2013

SIDE-BY-SIDE. STAND AND PRAY!



                                                      myriam loor



WE MUST LIVE WITH JOY
Is there a hell for these Peeps? HELL YES!

--Steve E

Pondering recent atrocities--while reading others who commented Monday's Boston Marathon 2013 happenings of horribleness--I found that I had not words to express my thoughts. Early this morning, picking up the most dusty book on my shelf, opening it randomly, I stared at this piece, as it stared back at me. From W H Auden's poem "Precious Five". This last stanza embodied my thinking, and is what I wished I could have written:

"I could" says the poet there,

Find reasons fast enough                        
To face the sky and roar
In anger and Despair
At what is going on--
Demanding that it name
Whoever is to blame.

The sky would only wait
Til all my breath was gone
And then reiterate
As if I wasn't there
That singular command
I do not understand:

Bless what there is, for being,

Which has to be obeyed, for
What else am I made for,
Agreeing or disagreeing?

--W H Auden

Posted by steveroni to dVerse Poets Pub 
Open Link Night (OLN), week #92

Monday, April 1, 2013

SAR-CHASM


Posted in OLN (Open Link Night) week #90.
Join us beginning 3 PM Tuesdays at dVerse



The King of Sarcasm
walked into the room
with tongue cocked
ready to shoot.

Zing. Zing
Pop. Pop.
Bang!

Crippling blows
struck their targets
as he walked off
to sit alone…
and yes—
lonely

"Borrowed" from someone I do not remember.
Let me know, for attribution. Thank you.

Tuesday, March 26, 2013

MUSIC AND MUSE AFLOAT

Posted in OLN (Open Link Night) week #89.
Join us beginning 3 PM Tuesdays at dVerse



     










Both paintings titled "VIOLINIST" by Mark Chagall

CLAUDIA, MARC CHAGALL, AND ME


While reading a few of  my blogger “favorites” I fell upon (yes!) this gem by Claudia…and comment here with words I really felt.

“Lots of fun stuff to “look at” in this piece, Claudia. The painter paints, and he awesomely colors violinists in non-gravity. (Is THAT why they called me –back in the day–”spaced-out fiddler”? NO!)”

The following is Inspired by Claudia's work

Clacking keyboard: she and me
and cherry blossom tree, amid
violins bathed in colorful splendor…
Chagall said(?) “Imagine how it must be
to live in all colors, minus gravity.” Hmmm.

Both lived in three-dimensions—or four--
waiting, suspended, not really real.
Falling in or falling out of their place;
a catch, a kiss, love forever sealed.

Nevertheless—
traveling 
endlessly,
separately, we

...In space!

--steveroni
March 25, 2013

Monday, March 18, 2013

THE LAST LETTER


Posted in dVerse
Poets Pub Tuesday

Open Link night
(OLN) week # 88




MY LAST WEEKLY LETTER FROM POP

Short Story of a MAN named Steve.
Born 1905
Cincinnati, Ohio
Sightless, age 4--1909
Farmer
Four children.
Loved children, wife, 
animals, reading, life,
in that order.

Horse kicked him in head, age 18,
totally deaf by age 50.

Perpetually smiling face—
happy, happy man!

Typed weekly (lengthy) letters
to which I responded—religiously,
in braille, also weekly,
also lengthy—grin!
We lettered for many years,
some now spotted with tears

This last one from him (pictured above),
written on Sunday March 25 1978, begins:

“Happy Easter to you all
Though the weather feels like fall.

The world itself keeps Easter Day
and Easter larks are singing.
Easter flowers are blue and gay
And Easter buds are springing.

The Lord of all things lives anew
And all His works are living too.

I spaded, (on his knees)
planted onions , lettuce and peas
until I was rained out.

Our crocus are blooming fine,
noticed buds on daffodils,
tulips still growing.
The whole world is awakening with spring.

For all of us a new birth,
even for wild animals and birds.
Had a look at pear tree.
Buds on it are growing,
tree feels very much alive…”

(Excerpts from Pop's last letter, 1978.)

The following Sunday, 
April Fool's Day
a massive heart attack
struck him breathless.
Forever.




Poem taken from this excerpt of "Last Letter"

REMEMBERING MARCH 18, 1974





BIRMINGHAM, ALABAMA, USA
Night Scene from VULCAN, Iron Man
atop Red Mountain


Just stepped outside, looking round the 'hood, 11:20 PM Sunday. 
I used to love being on a hilltop overlooking cities like 
Birmingham, Alabama (beautiful!) or Cincinnati, Ohio, 
after most Peeps had gone to sleep.

Twinkling lights rivaled blinking stars, and the 

steady drumming of a city at rest--sounds comingling, so much the 
same steady rhythm like a huge heart beating (like 60 times a minute). 
Didja ever notice that? I listened carefully to sounds, reminiscent of 
Gulf of Mexico wave action, reduced, as if even the great waters needed a rest.

Today March 18, I've been sober IN Alcoholics Anonymous 39 years! 

WHOEVER would have thought....well, not ME! 
Full of gratitude tonight--up for 7 AM meeting in morning. 
What a WAY OF LIFE! Freedon from Bondage--it is!

LOVE and PEACE, Peeps--ALL!

Steve.