Random Insights to a Poet's Delights

By Bob McCluskey

I was born in Toronto, Ontario in 1926 and grew up during the depression years. I had a stint in the Royal Canadian Air Force, then worked as a fireman on a coal burner on the Great Lakes. I served in the Canadian Army as well, just before World War II ended. Cast adrift after my Army discharge, I worked at a number of forgettable jobs. Through the intercession of my wife’s uncle, I became a retail clerk in a Brewers Warehousing beer store. I became assistant manager, then manager, and worked there for the next twenty-seven years.

At fifty, I had a very intense spiritual experience resulting in my resignation from the beer business. With my wife and younger daughter, we attended Youth with a Mission (YWAM) in Hawaii for six months, after which I worked for five years at 100 Huntley Street, a daily Christian television program in Toronto.

My wife and I then moved to British Columbia to join our two married daughters there, where I continue to the present time. My first wife passed away, and after a few years I met and married a lovely English lady whose picture you now see on the back cover. This brings us to March 2015, and my poetry continues to arrive as we continue to thrive.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Word Alive Press
• Release date: Jul 22, 2015
• ISBN: 9781486609338

Book preview

A word about my friend and fellow traveler, Bob McCluskey…

Gifts are just that: gifts. Freely given. Not earned.

Bob McCluskey is a gift: as a person, friend, and poet.

Poetry, like humor is a tricky thing. Both are extremely personal and individualistic. What touches one person deeply may not speak to the heart of another.

The poetry of my fellow traveler is just like that. His poems represent a broad range of idea and focus that provides a virtual buffet of words that will speak to your heart and situation. Such range only comes from a person who has traveled long and had a breadth of experience.

Poetry stands alone. It is not prose. It cannot be read quickly but must be savored like a good cup of coffee or meal. I encourage you to linger long at the table full of wit and wisdom.

You won’t be sorry….

—Tom Gardner,

Senior Pastor of Sunshine Hills Church, Delta, BC.

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Random Insights to a Poet’s Delights

Copyright © 2015 by Bob McCluskey

All rights reserved. Neither this publication nor any part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the author.

Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from the King James Version of the Bible.

EPUB Version

ISBN: 978-1-4866-0933-8

Word Alive Press

131 Cordite Road, Winnipeg, MB R3W 1S1

www.wordalivepress.ca

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Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication

McCluskey, Bob, 1926-, author

Random insights to a poet’s delights / Bob McCluskey.

Poems.

Issued in print and electronic formats.

ISBN 978-1-4866-0930-7 (paperback).--ISBN 978-1-4866-0931-4 (pdf).--

ISBN 978-1-4866-0932-1 (html).--ISBN 978-1-4866-0933-8 (epub)

I. Title.

PS8625.C587R35 2015 C811’.6 C2015-903553-8

C2015-903554-6

SUNSHINE HILLS FOURSQUARE CHURCH

6749 120th STREET, DELTA, B.C. V4E 2A7

Phone [phone] • Fax [phone]

Dedication

Parents and their children do have a reciprocal love relationship by dint of the natural gifts God has placed in us all, and my daughters and I are no exception.

I would however, bring attention to the added blessing achieved between my daughter Susanne Jorgensen and her mother and I, particularly since we and subsequently she, were born again into the Kingdom of God.

My daughter Susanne and her mother and I before her mother’s passing, came into a level of relationship which she and I have continued to enjoy and to be blessed with. She has become not just my daughter, but my very dear sister in Christ.

Susanne’s husband, David Jorgensen, along with all the little Jorgensens, Robert, Avery and Elizabeth are also all delightfully born again into God’s Kingdom. David has contributed enormously to his family’s spiritual walk and to my very warm welcome at their hearth.

And so it is with great appreciation to God for all His blessings, that I am delighted to dedicate this book of poetry to my daughter Susanne, my son-in-law David, and to their three children.

Through A Graveyard

February 19, 2015

I walked through a graveyard,

where row upon row,

names were chiseled in stone

where the dandelions grow.

Multitudes of blank names

which mean nothing at all.

Why do we who remain

never bother to call.

Surely they were once loved

I’ve no reason to doubt.

But they lie there forgot,

feeling very left out.

When we bury our kin,

doth cold earth expiate

for the words we held in,

now expounded too late.

All this wild speculation

is penned tongue in cheek.

They’re remembered in heaven

right now as we speak.

Quartet