Shelves and Things: A Collection of Memories

By Donnie D. Richards

Shelves and Things is a collection of memories recorded in poetic form and reflecting six decades of the life and thoughts of the author. This collection includes some mundane, trivial ramblings as well as some deeply rooted feelings and emotions that are not necessarily unique to the writer, but are frequently shared by all humans who traverse the sometimes bumpy and curving road that we call life. Inspired by the many people and events that he has encountered along the way, the author has personalized, and at the same time universalized, many of the common fears, preoccupations, joys, and everyday experiences that we all experience

• Language: English
• Publisher: iUniverse
• Release date: Sep 16, 2011
• ISBN: 9781462049394

Donnie D. Richards

I have always had a love for the written word-- novel, short story, drama, or poetry. The latter has always been a special love for me, and I have written poetic verses since very early in my life. As a student, I developed a love, not only for the words themselves, but also for poetic form. I was attracted by several generations of Spain's great poets, from early manifestations such as the epic El Cid, to the twentieth century master, Federico Garcia Lorca. My love for Romanticism is obvious to the observant reader, and the theme of unrequited love often harks back to the great Golden Age poets and play writes who wrote of love and its effects on the human soul. I have traveled extensively in my own country, in Latin America, and in Europe. Needless to say, things Hispanic fascinate me, and I have an enduring love for the peoples and the culture of the Iberian Peninsula, especially Spain. Spanish food, wine, music, literature and art--all of these transport me into a different world from the hot, dry plains of West Texas where I spent my childhood and formative years.

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Contents

Foreword

A Future Named Today

Ask Not Why

Can You Tell Me?

Dream World 2

Dream-World

Food for Thought

For My Wife

How I wish!

If I Could

In Search of the Setting Sun

Is There One?

Lament

Mary Anne

Meditations

Nature’s Rest

On Beauty

One Last Wish

Rain

Seeing Beauty

Shelves

Song of the Sea and Sky

The Irony of Life

The Builder

The Search For Love

To Go or Stay

Tomorrow’s Yesterday

To See Her Grown

What Is Beauty?

What’s This Thing Called Me

When I’m Old

A Father’s Day Wish for a Son

Foreword

There is chronology in a man’s life—birth, childhood, adolescence, young adulthood, maturity, old age, and finally, death. But there is no chronology in memory. Thankfully, memory is as free as a drifting cloud or as a feather on a soft breeze. It can be spurred to life by any number of beneath-consciousness mechanisms, and it can come cascading down upon us by a chance encounter with someone we scarcely know or even remember, or by a word, a song, a smell, or a myriad of other triggers that only the heart and the soul may know!

I travel a lot! I fly all over the world, and I drive uncalculated hours and hours to and from destinations that leave lasting memories tucked away neatly in the storehouse of my mind—on those crowded shelves that I like to call memory.

As you read through these verses which follow, if you have contributed to the inspiration behind any of them, I can only thank you and hope that you share that memory with me of a time, place, and circumstances perhaps that only the heart may know and remember!

I hope you find a memory

And bring it back to mind,

Of a happy day, of a good, good friend,

Of something left behind.

And I hope you spend one moment

On this day for looking back

And find a little peace of mind

In the friends who’ve crossed your track.

For