American Heartland Poetry, Wit, and Wisdom

By LTC Roy E. Peterson

American Heartland flows from the Midwestern childhood of the author who learned the values of loyalty, bravery, and honesty with love for God and country. LTC Peterson's poetry is a unique portrayal of those values, as a substantive down to earth word painting, but with a transcending perspective, yet substantive down to earth painting with words everyone can unequalled by modern poets.

His down to earth prose combined with his acumen, wit, and wisdom is comparable to Benjamin Franklin in Poor Richard's Almanac. Like Longfellow he portrays a nostalgic past and like Poe, Roy's mystic moments in Fall Fantasy are seductive. Two sections of humor, however, set him apart as a poet for the ages.

• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse
• Release date: Nov 30, 2012
• ISBN: 9781477292549

LTC Roy E. Peterson

LTC Roy E. Peterson authored three books of poetry “Beyond Darkness and Light” (2011), “Guardian Angel” (2012), and “American Heartland Poetry, Wit, and Wisdom”. In recent years he authored six more books of fiction, nonfiction, relationships, and juvenile literature. LTC Peterson was born and raised in South Dakota, the American Heartland, and then moved with his family to Texas at the age of thirteen. His writings bear testimony to his diverse experiences both in growing to manhood and then becoming a Military Intelligence Officer and analyzing Soviet/Russian military and foreign policy. A graduate of Hardin-Simmons University (BA degree) in Abilene, Texas, LTC Peterson holds three Masters degrees in Business (University of Phoenix), International Relations (University of Southern California) and Political Science (University of Arizona). His first poem was published while at Hardin-Simmons University. LTC Peterson served in the Army as Commander, Portal Monitoring, of Soviet missiles under the INF Treaty for the On-Site Inspection Agency, Military Intelligence and Security Advisor to the Army Staff in the Pentagon, Commander of a Military Intelligence Company in Germany for the 66th MI Group, and Assistant Army Attaché in Moscow. Roy Peterson was selected by the US Department of Commerce as the First Foreign Commercial Officer in the Russian Far East at the newly opened US Consulate in Vladivostok, Russia and as a Visa Issuing Officer for the US Department of State. IBM offered and he accepted a position as the first IBM Regional Manager in the Russian Far East, a territory the size of the continental United States. More recently, Roy Peterson taught Elites in Government, American History Since 1945, Marketing, and Global Management for the University of Phoenix in San Diego and Southern California. He opened an international trade business and sold product to foreign countries.

Book preview

TABLE OF CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION

Rediscovery

PART I FROM THE HEARTLAND

American Heartland

Farmer Of The Forties

South Dakota Boy

Battle Of Bonesteel

May Old Glory Always Wave

Rend The Night

PART II FROM THE HEART

Life And Death Of Jeannie

Badger, Badger

Prayer Versus Pain

Am I Trapped Or Am I Free

PART III WITH MALICE AFORETHOUGHT

Don’t You Think It Is A Crime When A Poem Doesn’t Rhyme

Fractured Birthday Greetings

When All Else Fails

How I Got Divorced

You Warped Me

Facebook Follies

King David

Velvet Hammer

PART IV WIT

Fortune Cookie Misfortunes

Roy’s Ten Rules Of Direct Proportionality

Household Hints For Newlywed Husbands

If I Had Written Adages, Aphorisms, And Old Proverbs

Roy’s Poster Items

Roy Peterson’s Senior Citizen Bachelor Reasoning

Roy Peterson’s Senior Citizen Bachelor Reasoning Ii

Proposed New Show: Texas Two-Step

Fractured Movie Titles

How One Knows They Are Having A Bad Day

Ten Messages Not To Write On A Cast

My Senior Bachelor Life Top Ten

National Park Service Comments

Large Woman In Red

PART VI WISDOM

Roy’s Take On Modern Warfare On Terrorism

Is It Just Me, Or Are There Others Out There Who:

Recent Personal Appearance Thoughts

Ten Things My Grandpa Backus Taught Me

Senior Sex Pointers

If You Can’t Think Outside The Box . . .

PART VI JUST ME BEING ME

Am I The Only Who . . . .

Just Me

Earnest Tubbs Songs: Strange, But True

Songs Where Every Word Fits Me . . . .

Roy Peterson’s National Party Platform

American Political Issues

Renamed Texas Newspapers

Roy’s Chuck It List (Things I Don’t Plan To Do)

Roy’s Newly Minted Words To Add To The Dictionary

Married Men And The Wives They Keep

PART VII BEYOND ME

Crusader

Boats And I Do Not Agree

Advice From Marine Colonels

My Neighbor’s Dog

Looking For Your Sanity

Seattle Slew

Vampires Of New England

PART VIII HOLIDAY HAPPINESS

Fall Fantasy

Father’s Day

Halloween Trick

Halloween 2012

Thanksgiving 2012

Christmas 2012

New Year’s Eve

Books Authored by LTC Roy E. Peterson

Albert: The Cat That Thought He Could Fly (Juvenile)

American Attache in the Moscow Maelstrom (Cold War History)

American Heartland Poetry, Wit, and Wisdom (Poetry)

Between Darkness and Light (Poetry)

Fight of the Phoenix (Vietnam War History)

Guardian Angel: All My Tomorrows (Poetry)

Iron Ikon (Historical Fiction about US Foreign Commercial

Officer Service/Diplomat/Foreign Service)

Magnetism to Marriage (PreMarriage Relationships)

Russian Romance (Historical Fiction about IBM Penetration of the Russian Far East)

Soviet Intelligence Process (Out of Print)

Books Planned by LTC Roy E. Peterson

American Agenda: Regeneration Blueprint (Politics)

American Heritage Poetry (Poetry)

Maturity: Mind Over Matter (Relationships)

Intelligence: Collection, Collation, and Communication

     (Government)

Order of the Delta Dragon (Historical Fiction)

Power of the Pentagon (History)

Precious Promises: Engagement Means Commitment

     (Relationships)

Victorville Visions: Development, Disappointment, and Drama

(Historical Business Fiction)

INTRODUCTION

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REDISCOVERY

Imagine my surprise when I discovered after publishing two poetry books that I resurrected my interest in painting images on a structured canvas. Beyond Darkness and Light captured my distant past moods better than I remembered. Guardian Angel became my more recent portfolio of efforts essentially done for others and special purposes.

In this volume of most recent work I wrote from the heart and about the heartland of America, my Midwest originations and ruminations, my fractious fulminations, my wit and wisdom writings usually in lists of ten, much as I often wrote for other venues well before the David Letterman Late Night Show on television, personal postulations, and mystical musings.

American Heartland Poet simultaneously is a progression and a regression in time, subject, thinking, mood, and spirit. While with my poetry I aspire to the level of Carl Sandberg in Chicago, the prose of Willa Cather writing poetry and novels rooted in the Nebraska prairie, or Mark Twain idealizing life on the Mississippi, my tendencies are more that of the romanticist like Shelley, Byron, and Keats while blending with the practical empathy of Robert Frost or the exquisite depictions of Poe, Longfellow, and Whittier.

In grade school in Bonesteel, South Dakota, I was first exposed to poetry by having to memorize The Village Blacksmith by Longfellow. My mother bought a deck of cards known as Authors and as an English teacher in Bonesteel High School at the time and having been a literature buff, she would cite poetry and passages from the authors in the deck as we played.

I once wrote poetry because I wanted to express myself in fanciful fashion as the authors with