Helpful Rhymes for Senior Times: A Collection of Verse for Christian Seniors

By Howard R. Stewart

The book contains a collection of poems selected from a larger collection which Howard has been writing weekly since 1995. They were published in the weekly news- letter of the Atherton Baptist Homes. So many people have expressed their gratitude for the poems as a source of encouragement, joy and hope that Howard decided to publish a selected number of them. They address issues that confront seniors during the aging process.

• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse
• Release date: Oct 17, 2012
• ISBN: 9781477279809

Howard R. Stewart

Howard Stewart was born in 1922 in Philadelphia, PA. where he attended public schools through high school. He served over three years in the U.S. Navy during World War II aboard the battleship, USS Idaho which involved him in thirteen battles. After the war Howard pursued his educational preparation for the ministry earning two Bachelor's degrees, two Master's degrees and a Doctorate. He served churches in Pennsylvania, Delaware and California during his forty years of active ministry. During that period he also was an adjunct professor at Wesley College in Delaware and at The American Baptist Seminary of the West and The Fuller Theological Seminary in California. He has authored three books on Baptist history and polity. He and his wife Evelyn were married for sixty-three years until she passed away in 2007. They had two married sons, seven grandchildren and seven great grandchildren. Howard retired in 1988 and resides at The Atherton Baptist Homes in Alhambra, California

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© 2012 by Howard R. Stewart. 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.

Published by AuthorHouse 12/07/2012

ISBN: 978-1-4772-7979-3 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4772-7978-6 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-4772-7980-9 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2012919191

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

Author’s Prologue

WHY?

Senior Aging Process

Old Minds Adding New Details

Acting Our Age

Don The Denier

Ode To A Chair

Good Old What’s His Name

Senior Accommodations

School For Seniors

What, Another Birthday Past

This Old House

Peter’s Fourth Denial

Improving With Age

Watching Time Fly

Senior Anxiety Times

Deafening Silence

Let Jesus Be Your Worry Bird

Sot In Our Ways

Amateur Faultfinders

The Indispensable Person

The Misunderstood Generation

Ode To A Grouse

More Than Half A Cup

Senior Egomania

Senior Worm Days

Managing Senior Food Stress

Senior Christians

Cookie Cutter Christians

Wow Love!

Sitting Down Is Trusting

My Childhood Addictions

Senior Spiritual Fitness

Senior Up And Down Days

Up and Down Days

The Old Man and The Old Shoes

Noah’s Rainy Weather

Adversity’s Products

Dogging It In July

Walking Through The Valleys

Senior Faith

Just The Facts, Ma’am

Our Christian Heritage

The Caleb Syndrome

The Perfect Church

Senior Thorns

How Big Is God?

Red Light District

Adam and Eve, First Freethinkers

The Name Above All Names

What’s The Take For 2013?

Making God Real

Speaking of Origins

Liking The Church

Our Sleepless God

Humbled By Hubble

The Chimp Has A problem

Senior Holidays

Who Is This Man?

Who Is This Man?

Who Is This Man?

When God Became A Baby

When God Became A Baby

When God Became A Baby

Life’s Tragedies . . . God’s Triumphs

The Beauty of America

Senior Humor

Free The Insects!

On Eating Doughnut Holes

Seniors And The Economy

Senior Lifestyle

Senior Stuff

When God Made Adam

Hang ’Em High

I’m Glad You Asked

Hope For A Break Out

On Being Patient

Senior Freeway Driving

The Prosperity Dilemma

On Living Longer

Ode To A Blank Mind

On Being A Male Chauvinist

A Preacher Without Words

Human Perfection

As We Seniors See It

Senior Values

Hurrah For Variety

Having Less—Gaining More

The Week Past

A Precious Gift

The Dilemma of Loving Oneself

A Prayer To Be Virtuous

Howard Stewart’s Biographical Sketch

Author’s Prologue

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GREETINGS. MY NAME IS HOWARD STEWART, and with the Lord’s help I am the author and compiler of the verses on the following pages. I am happy to greet you as you start your way through those verses which I composed for seniors in a Christian retirement community. The picture you see on the right is not of me today but when I was serving as a pastor in 1980. I am publishing this book at age ninety in 2012. The poems on these pages are part of a collection of many more I have composed since 1995 as a resident of a Christian retirement community called Atherton in Alhambra. California

Back in 1995 I was part of a group of residents at Atherton who started a coffee house on our campus to afford a place for refreshment and fellowship. We named it the Wholly Grounds Coffee House Our plans included having a Special once each week to help draw residents to the facility. I offered to write a notice of the special in our Monday weekly newsletter, and did so by putting them in poetic form (see Page Two). As time rolled on the verses took on a character of their own, and we stopped using them as commercials.

I shun calling them poems because I think Wordsworth, Keats and Shelley would turn over in their graves if I did so. It was clear, however, that as I gave themes to the writings that they were helping seniors to cope with the problems they were facing in their lives. Though I had retired from the active pastoral ministry in 1988, it dawned on me that God had given me a new ministry, so I have continued the writings to this day.

Since I am a Christian I come at this writing task from a Christian perspective. As you can see from the Table of Contents, not all of the poems revolve around spiritual themes. In fact most of them deal with everyday themes of living as senior adults. In addition I tried not to be preachy, although as a pastor for fifty years I’m not so sure how well I succeeded on that score. Many of the themes grew out of our everyday lives in our retirement community where we have four levels of care. At the core of our retirement community life is the central fact that we are a family, and are living that way.

So, as you visually wend your way through these pages it is my hope and prayer that you will have times of encouragement, laughter, spiritual and emotional growth, intellectual stimulation and just plain enjoyment. By the way you might like to know I get no profit from the sale of this book. Any profit realized from the sale of this book will be going into what we at Atherton call the Loving Care Fund. It is a trust fund maintained by our management to aid retired ministers and missionaries who need financial assistance for their retirement years.

May God give you His very best in all you do.

Howard R. Stewart

WHY?

There is an answer to a question which I seek,

And it’s why I write a poem every week?

Am I some kind of a computer word geek,

Or perhaps just a far out rhyming freak?

I’m certainly not a Wordsworth, Keats or Shelley,

Nor do I have poetic fires burning in my belly.

In fact, at times my brain seems like jelly,

As I seek for weekly rhymes like a nervous Nellie.

I got into this poem thing as an advertising gig,

To make our weekly coffee house special look big.

Soon I was incarcerated in a weekly mental brig,

Behind the bars of this poetic thingamajig.

As a matter of fact it’s become a poetic addiction,

From which I care not for an eviction.

Now please don’t pronounce on me some malediction,

Because I have contracted this rhyming affliction.

If I turn this Why coin over to the other side,

I think there is an answer with which I can abide.

In fact, it’s an answer that stirs in me a little pride,

And it’s the affirmations so many readers provide.

Yes, pride is one of the seven deadly sins,

But my rhyming pride leaves me with a grin.

That’s because when you’re feeling done in,

One of the poems becomes your underpin.

I suppose I’ll just keep on doing