Four Necklaces

By Robert Martin

I hope you find my poems universal in its message. Universal in how it makes you feel more alive, more related, more connected, more whole. We are all laughing and crying over the same things. And if it is honest enough, if it is good enough, silly enough, I hope it will pull something out of you that touches your humanity. Each volume is yet one more bookmark, one more crimped corner of yet one more turned page in my life. It is above all about what goes on in my house. What everyone seems to go through, and how everyone is caught flat-footed by life. I write because I must, but I hope you read what I write to feel. How does it make you feel?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lulu.com
• Release date: May 16, 2014
• ISBN: 9781312196537

Robert Martin

Hi, readers, my name is Robert Martin, nickname “Donnie.” I grew up in Memphis, Tennessee. I’ve had a speech problem in my whole life. I am a stutterer. I left Memphis at the age of twenty and joined the U.S. Marines. After I got out of the marines, I moved to Atlanta, Georgia, and went to school for law enforcement. I left Atlanta and moved to Indianapolis, Indiana, to pursue a career in law enforcement. I worked in various prisons and juvenile systems. I’m a disabled veteran and attend the Church of Jesus in Indianapolis. I love to testify about the Lord Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit, and the life-changing events that He has used to impact my life. In Jesus name, Amen!

Book preview

ALSO BY ROBERT STEVEN MARTIN

Boot Camp at the Salt Marsh

And Under This Paint

How to Become a Buddha

There is Too Much Sun on Too Tender a Place

My Sister Is Living the Life on the Kellogg’s Cereal Box

Four Necklaces

Poems

Robert Steven Martin

Copyright 2014 by the author of this book, Robert Steven Martin, the book author maintains sole copyright to his contributions to this book.

ISBN 978-1-312-11213-1

Playing in this sweetest of fields

this privilege I have 

and the people who God gave me

to travel with

in this shortest of moments.

Contents

Contents

10 word poem email war between me and wife

A picture of exhaustion

A smoky little poem

After having retired from my teaching job

Another poem about the sky

Childhood friends

Crisscross applesauce

Figuring things out

Four necklaces

Grumpy poem

Here’s to another rough draft

I romanticize World War II movies

If truth is rain

If you go anywhere else to read a poem

Julia

Last will and testament

Love love in your general direction

My wife as her father dies

Next to nothing

On a wisp of wire

Stalking nature

The Alps of Anson County

The marker

The practice of meditation

The universe had a limp

There was no effort to soften this story

This life— hers, mine, ours

This shortest of moments

The sweetness and ridiculous nature of us

Trouble

When you speak to someone in kindness

The South and I are trying to understand Fellini