Poems and Prose from Writers’ Workshop—2006

Group members displayed the following examples of poetry and prose as part of Arts and Faith Sunday 2006.

Recharged Life

Peggy Anderson (2006)

Upon Retirement

Peggy Anderson (2006)

Makaala Christmas

Arlene Buss

The Blessing of the Birds

It’s a fall day on the prairie,
windy on the billowed land and crisp.
I watch the birds gather in the tree, wing
by wing and song on song—the silent
land retreating slowly into itself
without us, our instincts, our flock
of woes, our fluttering doubts
about beginnings and endings, our flight
 
as a bird. No bird gives
thought to such cares
too busy playing follow the leader
and matching the song of his mate
with news of his own. And when
the day’s light shrinks off the west
they fly to the southern sky.
 
Such change is no change for them,
year after year the same, back
and forth. A ritual for birds
eternal movement that has no
motion. Consider how
great a love which never falters
yet never remains the same
because of passing fears and joys,
time’s migration from shore
 
to shore. They lower the body
into the ground with prayers of grief.
The swallows take to the sky
as the priest slashes the air
with a tree-shaped sign
and says, “Go in peace.”
 

Fritz Fritschel

We See By Looking Away

We see by looking away
And have by setting free;
Being is letting be,
Speaking is nothing to say.
 
Seven or six sisters
Plying westward
On wintry nights
Across starry seas,
Seen yet unseen
As they dazzle dim
And disappear
Before steersmen’s eyes;
We look to see
But see by looking away.
 
Five or four arms
Playing together
On cold nights
In a warmed bed
Holding yet held
As they snuggle hug
And unhand
After love-making sighs;
We hold to have
But have by setting free.
 
Three voices in one
Planting words
In chaotic darkness
Over primeval waste
Heard yet unheard
As they whisper wind
And over-offer
Under suffering skies;
We strain for being
But being is letting be.
 
Two selves or none
Ploring
Through silent hours
Within timeless moments
Speaking yet unspoken
As they mingle merge
And unyoke
Among riddling whys;
We say to speak
But speaking is noting to say.
 

Fritz Fritschel

Lou Bentade

Jean-Paul Klingebiel (2005)

grandma girl

Rounded forehead, Rebecca the practical one
Wore her hair up in a minimum bun,
Not quite enough braid for a crown, though
Queen of the family was she.
Born wise, she of the dreamer husband
Ran a tight-ship tailor shop
Where she tightened dreams and buttons:
Queen of the family that was.
The photo tells me she was once a bride
With deep brown eyes and downy hair
But I made no sense of that grandma girl
’Til they told me I was a grandma to be:
Queen of the family to be.
 

Kathryn Klingebiel (2005)

inside the kingdom of sentiment

inside the kingdom of sentiment #1  
past personal feeling
past perfect feeling
conjugated anew? not now:
our past a perfect togetherness
our togetherness perfectly past
 
 
inside the kingdom of sentiment #2
 
present impersonal feeling
present discontinuous feeling
conjugated no longer: indeed,
our past a continuous togetherness
our togetherness presently past
 
 
inside the kingdom of sentiment #3
 
future potential feeling
future progressive feeling
conjugated again? after all,
our future for the taking
our now a future in the making
 

Kathryn Klingebiel (2005)

a poem and its photographic negative

we bring feeling into the world
mechanical mountains
cold snow
we string the rainbow with our need to fly
the mountain top knows nothing of our triumph
nor cares, nor cares to know;
birds do not sing to us
their song is for another ear
we go on to the end
still climbing listening still singing along
warm heart on any trail makes its own hilltop music
 
we leach feeling from the world
majestic mountains
soothing snow
we undo the whirlpool with our need to swim
the mountain top encourages our triumph
and cares, and cares to know;
birds sing straight to us
their song is for our ear alone
but we never reach the end
after climbing even listening not quite hearing
all the deep hearts of the world making hilltop music
 

Kathryn Klingebiel (2005)

BOYCOTT

Irish land tenants were having a difficult time, as absentee landlords treated them so harshly. By 1879 landlords demanded rent after several years of crop failures. Because tenants were unable to pay any amount of rent, landlords evicted them for non-payment.

Charles Steward Parnell, an Irish Nationalist leader, was a member of the British House of Commons and sought by constitutional means to obtain Home Rule, or self government, for Ireland.

A National Land League was organized, aiming, at least, to ease the conditions of tenants. Parliament was slow to act. In 1880, Parnell spoke before a gathering of tenants, advocating that any landlord who took over land from which a tenant had been evicted should be punished “by isolating him from his kind as if he were a leper of old.”

This policy was accepted and put to a test in County Mayo. Tenants of the estates of the earl of Erne set up a lower scale of payments, if they were unable to pay.

However, the manager of these properties, Captain Charles Cunningham Boycott, refused to accept these figures. In retaliation, the tenants carried out what Parnell had advocated, but with much more force. They refused to gather the crops, they forced his servants to leave him, tore down his fences so cattle could enter, intercepted his mail and food supplies, hooted him in the streets, hung him in effigy, and even threatened his life. He was the first to receive this treatment, but others received it soon after.

The tactics practiced against Captain Boycott became so famous that English newspapers used his name to describe this conduct.

The term boycott became a new word in our language, but rapidly was adopted in the French, German, Russian and Dutch languages.

In 1886, with Parnell’s continued efforts, Parliament passed the Tenant’s Relief Bill, which improved the farmers’ conditions.

Gerda M.Turner

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