Moonlight, Stuff and Nonsense: Poems for the Reflective Years

By C. W. Christian

About the Book:

The title of the book, Moonlight, Stuff and Nonsense, reflects its nature and its genesis. The poems, mostly short and to the point, were written in part for the monthly Newsletter of the Baylor University Retired Professors/Administrators Program. While most are light and humorous, they represent a wide range of moods and feelings from sentiment to humor to the ridiculous. Some are tongue-in-cheek, some are nostalgic and reminiscent. Some are free-wheeling and border on the outrageous.
The subtitle, Poems for the Reflective Years, suggests that many of the poems were written for a mature audience with a wide-range of memories and experiences, but people who are still warm in heart and possessed of keen intelligence and humor. The volume contains poems of self-examination and social comment--not untouched by an irony--love songs, poems to and about grandchildren, about insomnia, getting old, the smiles and frowns of married life, technology, daily frustrations, eye checkups, traffic, dog ownership, the natural creatures about us, and more, plus a generous helping of (printable) limericks.
Dr. Christian's poetic style varies from traditional, rhyming verse, to free verse and even blank verse. It seeks to be eminently readable but, the author hopes, never shallow or glib. He hopes the reader will smile, nod knowingly, remember with pleasure or with a tear and, perhaps once or twice, laugh aloud.

• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse
• Release date: Jul 8, 2011
• ISBN: 9781463419240

Book preview

© 2011 by C. W. Christian. All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.

First published by AuthorHouse 07/05/2011

ISBN: 978-1-4634-1519-8 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4634-1924-0 (ebk)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2011909535

Printed in the United States of America

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Thinkstock.

Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

Contents

Confessions of a Doggerel Writer

Three Beasties

Son of Green Thumb

Seventy-six Candles

A Reluctant Aubade

Desperation

Caveat for the First of March

Tale of a Tooth

Song to be Sung by the Wife of a Recently Retired Professor

RX

To tell the truth…

Domesticated or Ballad of the Broken Spirit

The Realist

Tool Time

Short Pants

Love by Degrees

Reflections on Aging

Grouch

Insomnia

Coffee at Burger King

Tail Lights

Mutt!

A Wry Retrospective

Decisions

Dominoes

Inventory

Second Banana

Button

A Higher Calling

Frustration

Early Bird

Rip Van Betty

Smile When You Say That, Podner!

Season to Taste

The Difference

Get Away from Me!

Message for Our Answering Machine

Dog in a Fix

Ode on Forty-Eight Years Married to The Same Woman, and Glad of it

Heron

Girls

Sweet Music

Limericks for People with Taste

Animalimericks for Elizabeth and Other Very Intelligent Children

Old Photograph

Three Love Songs

Six Elizabethan Songs

Three Songs for Christmastide

The Man Who Hated Christmas

L’envoi

To

Elizabeth,

Savannah, Sidney,

Eli, Ella

and

their Aunt JoAnne

The majority of the poems in this little collection were written for the monthly Newsletter of the Baylor University Retired Professors/Administrators Program, which program has been directed for many years by Dr. Rufus Spain. I wish to thank Dr. Spain for his support and encouragement in this project and the administration of a great university for sponsoring and underwriting this worthwhile organization. I thank also my many friends who have encouraged our efforts with love and appreciation. Above all, my thanks and love go to the lady who has been my steady presence for so long and who is the inspiration for not a few of the poems herein.

C. W. Christian.

Confessions of a Doggerel Writer

When first I read that sonnet by the Bard—

Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?—

I started writing poetry by the yard,

Replete with every image and cliché.

Heeding my muse, it was my worthy goal

To let my spirit soar like Blake or Shelley,

To touch men’s hearts or heal the broken soul.

Instead, I’ve prompted laughter in the belly.

Alas, the world has scorned me when I’m serious,

Ignored my pathos, overlooked my passion,

As if to say, "Your fulminations weary us.

Write us a poem in your foolish fashion."

And so I’ve smiled and donned Pagliacci’s ruff,

I’ve worn the jester’s jolly bells and sash,

And now I scribble volumes of such stuff

To make great Gilbert groan or Ogden Gnash.

But lest you