Collected Poems

By Richard George

These are the many verses I have composed over the past fifty years. This volume contains the full body of my verses from the past fifty years. I have included a preface and an alphabetic list of titles with connected bookmarks.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Richard George
• Release date: Dec 10, 2015
• ISBN: 9781311037527

Richard George

RICK GEORGE was appointed president and chief executive officer of Suncor Energy Inc. in 1991; he retired in spring 2012. He was named Canada’s Outstanding CEO of the Year in 1999 after leading a remarkable business turnaround at Suncor, and he received the Canadian Business Leader Award from the Alberta School of Business in 2000. George was appointed an Officer of the Order of Canada in 2007 for his leadership in the development of Canada’s natural resources sector,for his efforts to provide economic opportunities to Aboriginal communities, and for his commitment to sustainable development. Originally from Brush, Colorado, George lives with his family in Calgary, Alberta.

Book preview

Collected Poems

By Richard George

Copyright 2015 by Richard George

Smashwords Edition

Preface

Some of us are compelled to scribble verses. Iambs, trochees, anapests or the lilt of words in a line burst forth to flatter beauty’s ignorant ear, or at least the inner tin ear of the versifier. Some of us are afflicted with verse impulses; others, I suspect, become addicted to versifying. If I didn’t scribble verses I would deny a basic component of my being.

I first encountered verse at a tender age. By my early teens poetry, verse, and literature preoccupied me almost as much as sex. My compulsion to versify has not diminished, though its influence on me waxes and wanes depending on the vicissitudes and attitudes of everyday survival.

Some of my verses are syllabic, others are based on traditional forms such as the sonnet, sestina, and triolets. Some might even qualify as free verse, though I don’t often think in free verse terms. Despite its evident uselessness as any kind of practical tool I versify on whim at many opportunities. Prose is good for things like grocery lists. Verses are a moment’s monument, an encapsulation of sentiments, the physical universe and ephemera churning in the poet’s soul. Poetry and verse are not interchangeable terms. Verse refers to the arrangement of words in one pattern or another (think of free verse as a form in its own right). Poetry is any literary creation that rises above its humble origins to express beauty or truth (Keats equated them). Poetry may as likely occur in prose format as in verse format.

This collection of verses spans my now nearly-completed lifespan. I doubt I have more than twenty years left. Since to rhyme words twenty years leaves little room in my life I’ll meander among the syllables of English to put them in verses, and, maybe, poetry.

Peruse this volume, dear reader, (I’ve always loved this phrase—it reeks of the 1920s to me) and you may find herein somewhat to amuse you.

Verses encapsulate a moment. A few words shape an incident in the cosmos. The moment may be defined by an image, an event, an emotion, or a whimsy. A new perspective expresses a reality, sometimes one so obscure even the poet is unsure what it is. Then along comes a reader, reads the poem, and another perspective is born. Reader, enjoy making out with these poems.

Listed below are the volumes into which I have divided my verses.

From the Classics paraphrases verses from the classical authors. In best 18th Century fashion I have re-imagined them in a 20th century manner.

Adapted from Anacreon # 47

Convenience (Greek Anthology 402)

For My Ex

Love Weariness

Midsummer’s Night

My Escape

For a Soldier Who Died on Camera

Adapted from Anacreon # 53

Sailor Becalmed (Greek Anthology 640)

Tithonos

Lesser Verses are short lines, for the most part, on a wide variety of subjects. The inspiration for them arose from multiple sources, particularly Chinese and Japanese verses in translation.

The Place

Golden Gate Bridge

After Psalm 137

A Dream of Dolls

Aubade

Butterflies

Coyote Skull

Epitaph

Ghosts

Haiku

In Exile

July Moon

Loveland Lake

From Wu Ti

Moths

November

Lover and Moon

Petals

Purpose

Question

Rain and Lichen

Red Geranium

Sea and Grove

Stone Man

Tears

The Dragon and the Iguana

The Plaid Giraffe

Rock Creek

The Gift

November Garden

Rainy Night

The Moon Pretends

Poppies

The Old Ewe

Lines from a Gum Tree Grove is a set of fourteen-line poems written in iambic tetrameter with a rhyme scheme of abacbcdefdegfg. They chronicle my courtship, marriage and divorce. I was spurred to write them in part by reading Meredith’s Modern Love.

Where Were You When We Met?

First Date

We Found a Quiet Place

Two Conjoined

Provoke No Dragons

You the Queen

Watching You

You Braid Your Hair

Morning Glories

Housekeeping

Squeaking Snow

Prairie Winds

Rhinestone Weeds

Coyotes

Two Sparrows

Two Gulls

Surf

Squid Boats

The Sails

We Watch the Swallows

Invasion

The Turquoise Frog

The Witch

The Frost

Night Disturbance

Champagne Dragons

The Temblor

Rain

I Talk of Swans

We Wake the Buzzards

The Frog Dream

Gargoyles

The Chase

Joshua Trees

City Streets

You Are Sad

The Caged Cricket

The Owl's News

The Photograph

The Lost Day

Come Play

The Hawk

Milking Time

Talk

Shadows

The Walnut Ships

Absent

Dusty Dragon

The Missing Queen

Your Call

Etiquette

Day Breaks

In My Dreams

Postscript

Orts and Oddments contains verses on many subjects and in many forms. They are, often, bits and pieces without a close connection to each other.

The Visitation

Homeward Bound

Hospital

Hyperbole

Kokopelli

Park Encounter

Reunion

John Day Country

The Hustler

The Tulip Bearers

For Don Wells

The Clockwork Nightingale

Dictionary Flowers

Early Muse

Fred

Alone

Grownups Talked

Mrs. Palmer

Flute Man

The Rare Quiet

A Certain Lady

For Friends in an Old Snapshot

Invitation

Generations

A Trio of Triolets

Harp and Willows

Love Song

White Asters

Kate Nein Remembers 1917

Easter Monday, 2002

Road Kill—A Villanelle

October 7, 2001

Images of Afghanistan

Misty Gorge on the Yangtze

Yellow Mountain

World Cuisine

Afternoon at Machu Picchu

Cruising Musing

The Sphinx

Sales Resistance

Temple Dogs

Sunset

The Wild Nile Gone

The Pylon Carvings

Religions

Machu Picchu Rain

Cairo Streets

Quatorzains are fourteen line poems. The most common use of these poems is for sonnets, both English and Italian. There are many variations, as well.

By the River

First Funeral

El Amor Pasa

Flesh and Conceits

Teddy’s Bath

The Boy

The Singing Boy

Ghosts Between Us

If I Should Die

In Fifty Years

Night Incident

Night Music

Spring Breakfast

Spring Vistas

Summer Grass

The Carousel

The Quiet Carousel

The Coyote

The Dowager

The Frogs

The Presence

The River

Waiting for Unicorns

When We Began to Love

White Water

Wise Old Women

Berry Picking

Childhood Rules

Remembering Barbi in April of this year (2015) my kid sister, Barbi, died. She was the best of sisters, and my especial friend. I’m still reeling from the shock of finding her dead when I came home after a conference. Let this be her epitaph until God gives her a better one.

Remembering Barbi One

Remembering Barbi Two

Remembering Barbi Three

Remembering Barbi Four

Remembering Barbi Five

Remembering Barbi Six

Remembering Barbi Seven

Remembering Barbi Eight

Remembering Barbi Nine

Remembering Barbi Ten

Remembering Barbi Eleven

Remembering Barbi Twelve

Remembering Barbi Thirteen

Remembering Barbi Fourteen

Remembering Barbi Fifteen

Remembering Barbi Sixteen

Remembering Barbi Seventeen

Remembering Barbi Eighteen

Remembering Barbi Nineteen

Remembering Barbi Twenty

Remembering Barbi Twenty-One

Remembering Barbi Twenty-Two

Remembering Barbi Twenty-Three

Remembering Barbi Twenty-Four

Remembering Barbi Twenty-Five

Spiritual Ruminations are moments from my exploration of things spiritual.

Making Poems

Villanelle for a Silver God

A Caveat to New Converts

Ossuary

God Thoughts

Ascension Sunday

Elegy for a Dead God

Elvis Redemptor

Geas

Abandoned Promise

Out of the Shadow

Sunday Morning

Anything is Possible in California

The Copper God

The Alpha-Bestiary is a group of twenty-six poems for a parent to read to a child. One poem per letter celebrates the histories of various beasts.

A is for Arliss

B is for Barnaby

C is for Cathy

D is for Disraeli

E is for Edelweiss

F is for Frank

G is for Gilbert

H is for Hellebore

I is for Ichabod

J is for Johannes

K is for Katrinka

L is for Leander

M is for Milford

N is for Nestor

O is for Oswald

P is for Pythagoras

Q is for Quigley

R is for Rehoboam

S is for Sandoval

T is for Teresa

U is for Ursula

V is for Vladimir

W is for Willoughby

X is for Xenocrates

Y is for Yussef

Z is for Zenobia

Winter Poems are poems from my winter of 2015. The subjects and forms are various.

Ken

Don’t Wait for Me

November Sonnet

November Villanelle

The Lovers

Random Triolet

South Park

Winter

Afghanistan Redux

Drought Sonnet

Ballad of Remembrance

Astronomical Triolet

Evensong

Winter Ballad

Regarding Death

Promises

Jill’s Call

Daylight Comes

I Welcome the Sun

The Quiet Time

The Night Comes Soon in November

December Night

Thanksgiving Lyric

Winter Sonnet

Young and Old, a Ballad

Minor Song

December Sonnet

Remember June?

Admonition

Friends

Folk Fashion