November Gold

Ever notice that it's not just decorations on the classroom bulletin board
and pictures on calendars
but October really IS orange
and November really IS golden?

Lawns are faded
Leaves have fallen, most are raked.

There's something to the angle of the sun
and a nip in the air.

Maybe it's because
between All Saints' Day and Thanksgiving,
we're reminded of out blessings and family-
especially those already in Heaven.

Whatever it is,
November really is
golden.

Gold November

The grass on the hills is golden
the bean fields are amber
and the corn stubble are is like Rumpelstiltskin's spinning-straw

The golden hours of dawn and dusk stretch out
leaving barely an hour of clear-blue noon
glazing the entire day with honey.

The red and orange leaves are gone
or faded to sepia
leaving the trees taupe or warm-grey
just a few yellow ones cling on
to avoid a fate in the foul fires
or the compost pile.

Candles have started to warm our homes' decor
and French fried onions decorate the green been casserole
and the roasted turkey's skin glints like polished brass.

My favorite poem

Every April, our Creative Writing teacher asks the staff to submit our favorite poems, which she has her class post with our pictures on poster board in the hallways. This year I chose one that I figured was particularly appropriate for an Art teacher. 

Drawing Class
By Billy Collins, 2003

If you ever asked me
how my drawing classes are going.

I would tell you that I enjoy
adhering to the outline of a thing,

to follow the slope of an individual pear
or the curve of a glossy piano.

And I love trialing my hand
over the smooth membrane of bond,

the intelligent little trinity
of my fingers gripping the neck of the pencil


while the other two dangle below
like the fleshy legs of a tiny swimmer.

I would add that I can get lost
crosshatching the shadow of a chair

or tracing and retracing
the slight undercarraige of a breast

Even the preparations call out to me -
taping the paper to a wooden board,


brushing its surface clean,
and sharpening a few pencils to a fine point.

The thin hexagonal pencil
is mightier than the pen,

for it can modulate from firm to faint
and shift from thin to borad

whenever it leans more acutely over the page -
the bright yellow pencil,

which is also mightier than the sword
for there is no erasing what the sword can do.

We all started with the box and the ball
then moved on to the cup and the lamp,

the serrated leaf, the acorn with its cap.
But I want to graduate to the glass decanter

and learn how to immobilize in lead
translucent curtains lifted in air.

I want to draw
four straight lines that will connect me

to the four points of the compass,
to the bright spires of cities,

the overlapping trellises,
the turning spokes of the world.

One day I want to draw freehand
a continuous figure

that will begin with me
when the black tip touches the paper

and end with you when it is lifted
and set down beside a luminous morning window.

Happy National Poetry Month

"Poetry is not the expression of personality but an escape from personality." ~T.S.Eliot

In honor of April, National Poetry Month,

I thought I'd share some of my own- such as it is 

(thus the title, Max Nix is German for "not much,"
we Midwesterners are known for our self-effacing modesty).

Ted's poetry on this blog

Ted's poetry on Goodreads

Ted on Lulu Poetry

Ted on OriginalPoetry.com 

But there is so much better poetry out there, so don't just read mine-

Poets.org

Poets&Writers

Poetry180

PoetryDaily

My time at the Sun

Every year our English teacher solicits our favorite poems for National Poetry Month and requests that we give her a picture of ourselves so that her class can make posters of our poems to hang in the hallway. Last year I made myself look like Iowa artist Grant Wood. This year I decided to make myself into H.L. Mencken, political columnist, humorist, social commentator, reporter, and editor of the Baltimore Sun, back at the time of Theodore Roosevelt.

I may never be as famous or influential a writer, I may not even have a weekly column in our tiny local paper anymore but I still love writing. Maybe someday God will even let me make a living at it.

Please note that the beer mug tattoo was drawn on the original photo by Mencken himself- that's not something I added on my own.

Poem about shutting up

There's been ink in my veins from an early age
but it seems like it wasn't meant to be
either I wasn't meant for it or it wasn't meant for me

I want to give it up
I want to do what you want me to

don't know if you're afraid of it,
or if it makes you not like me

I'm trying to give it up,
because I don't want to lose you

but I swear God made me this way
so what am I supposed to do?

I'm haunted by the ghost of Tom Joad

I asked God to take me away from me.
to make me silent and submissive like Winston Smith at the end of 1984
only without having to face the rats or betray Julia first

Memorial Day

Memorial Day an opportunity to remember
Charter Oak-Ute NEWSpaper & Schleswig LEADER, Thurs. May 25, 2006

Memorial Day was officially proclaimed on May 5, 1868 by General John Logan, national commander of the Grand Army of the Republic and was first observed on 30 May 1868, when flowers were placed on the graves of Union and Confederate soldiers at Arlington National Cemetery.

This is what General Logan wrote:

“The 30th day of May, 1868, is designated for the purpose of strewing with flowers or otherwise decorating the graves of comrades who died in defense of their country during the late rebellion, and whose bodies now lie in almost every city, village, and hamlet church-yard in the land. In this observance no form of ceremony is prescribed, but posts and comrades will in their own way arrange such fitting services and testimonials of respect as circumstances may permit.”

Most of the South refused to celebrate Memorial Day until after WWI and even then, several Southern states held ceremonies on separate days.

It is said that after that war the battlefields in France were covered in poppies, so that they looked blood red. Scientists now think that all the iron from the actual blood and decomposed bodies of fallen soldiers actually effected the soil there in such away as to drastically increase the yield of the natural poppy population.

The phenomenon led poet John McCrae to write his famous poem in1915:

“In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.
We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.”

This moved a woman named Moina Michael so much, that she wrote her own poem:

“We cherish too, the Poppy red
That grows on fields where valor led,
It seems to signal to the skies
That blood of heroes never dies.”

She’s the one who came up with the idea of wearing red poppies on Memorial day to honor those who died serving their nation during war. Not only did she wear one, but she sold poppies to her friends and co-workers with the money going to benefit servicemen in need.

In the 1920’s, the Franco-American Children's League sold poppies nationally to benefit war orphans of France and Belgium. The League disbanded a year later and it’s organizers asked the Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW) for help. They’ve been selling poppies to help support the families of service personnel and veterans ever since then.

To help re-educate and remind Americans of the true meaning of Memorial Day, the "National Moment of Remembrance" resolution was passed in Dec 2000. President Clinton declared:

“As Memorial Day approaches, it is time to pause and consider the true meaning of this holiday. Memorial Day represents one day of national awareness and reverence, honoring those Americans who died while defending our Nation and its values. While we should honor these heroes every day for the profound contribution they have made to securing our Nation's freedom, we should honor them especially on Memorial Day.

In this time of unprecedented success and prosperity throughout our land, I ask that all Americans come together to recognize how fortunate we are to live in freedom and to observe a universal ‘National Moment of Remembrance’ on each Memorial Day. This memorial observance represents a simple and unifying way to commemorate our history and honor the struggle to protect our freedoms.

Accordingly, I hereby direct all executive departments and agencies, in consultation with the White House Program for the National Moment of Remembrance (Program), to promote a 'National Moment of Remembrance' to occur at 3 p.m. (local time) on each Memorial Day.”

No matter how we feel about the War in Iraq or the threat of war in Iran, we can all send our prayers out for the families of our men and women currently serving in the armed forces. And if only at 3 o’clock in the afternoon this Monday, we should take a moment to remember and give thanks for the men and women who have given their lives in return for the rights and privileges we all enjoy as Americans. And if you have a chance, buy a poppy.