My Life in Rhymes
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About this ebook
My Life in Rhymes is a collection of poems, and musings written over the course of my lifetime and all of them hold a special place in my heart. From the memory of a small child that came from poverty standing in line for a government handout in the poem Little Boy Blue to the poem Running From the Storm which documents the emotions that raged in me during my personal battle with cancer: a battle that I am happy to say I won. These poems are in fact what I have experienced in my life and times. It is my hope that they in some small way, reach your heart, and that you enjoy reading them as much as I enjoyed creating them. Robert Frost simplified the definition of poetry by saying “Poetry is when an emotion has found its thought and the thought has found words.”
My Life in Rhymes documents, in poetic form, my life story and my emotions, in which I have indeed, found thought, and with the words that I found to express that thought, I hope will take the reader on a journey through the many aspects of this man’s very existence with me as the guide.
John Alan Negich
John Alan Negich still lives in Export, a small Western Pennsylvania coal town where he grew up. He has been writing most of his life and cut his teeth on reading the classics by authors like H.G. Wells, Jules Verne, Mark Twain and Ernest Hemingway. His most recent work Retribution; reflects the influence that his home town, its people and its memories had on his writing. John is a storyteller who paints a picture with his words that gives the reader the sense they are standing in the locations where the novel takes place and actually seeing, hearing and touching the characters.
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Book preview
My Life in Rhymes - John Alan Negich
Be a Dreamer
Strive to be what you see in your dreams and feel in your heart. Do not heed what others think you should or should not be. Envision your world as only you want it to be.
Make that world a reality and you will be forever smiling.
This book of Musings, Songs and Poems is a series of snapshots in time depicting periods of my life. It is graciously dedicated to my Dear Mother, as well as my family, my friends and all of those people, places and special moments that have contributed to making Me……Me.
Table of Contents
Life is short
Expectations
Contemplation
Future
A Thought
Be You
Lord of the Forest
Catfish
Just a dog
Life is Good
Fencerow
Paradise
Lady and Beau
Goodbye Old Man
Spring
Home Today
Mom
Rendezvous
My Place
My Lady
The Stream beside the Hill
Why
Reality
River of Life
Goodbye old Friend
My Pen
I can’t make it without you
The Farm
Blossom
That Boy
Chapel Fork Creek
I’d Do It All Again
I’ve Got It All
That Skirt
Coming Home
Hang Tough
Dodge City
He was a good man
We Miss Me
Be the Change
Put Your Guns Away
The Race
Dance with Me
You Sure Ain’t Like Me
Running From the Storm
You loved me
Happy or Right
I Took a Walk
Serendipity
Screen Door
Like You
Simple things I loved as a kid
Redstone Cowboy
Black Water
Turn the Page
Going My Way
Little Boy Blue
Candy Apple Kiss
When You Leave
Silent Soldiers
Nine O’clock Whistle
We Wish
I am
Make It So
One More Time
The Beast
Three Wishes
The Musselshell
If I Had Gone
Red Mustang
Old Black Dog
Night Walk
Life is short
Don’t waste your precious time looking for the faults in others, but spend your time wisely nurturing the good in yourself.
Expectations
If you expect people to do what you think they should do, you will usually be disappointed. If you temper your expectations you will sometimes be pleasantly surprised.
Contemplation
I am relatively certain that I am not afraid to die. I am however, very certain that I do not want to stop living.
Future
What I am today is stark reality
What I will be tomorrow rests with me and me alone
What shall I achieve with the time I have remaining?
What good can I do with what’s left of my life?
A Thought
The feeling of awe and insignificance
I feel while wading in the ocean
Is as if I am standing alone
In a giant watery hand
And at any instant
The hand could form a fist
And swallow me forever
Be You
Embrace your roots and be yourself
Don’t take part in a charade
To emulate something you are not
Just makes your life a masquerade
In reality you’ll be nothing more
Than a jester in a fools parade
Lord of the Forest
Mighty Oak
I stand before you humbly
In wonder and in awe
As heavy mist surrounds my feet
Damp with morning dew
As oft before to comprehend
The wonders that I saw
And try again to understand
The miracle that’s you
Oh with such royal majesty
You rule what’s your domain
In a constant silent vigil
Of the land on which you grow
Hillsides white with trilliums
Glistening in the morning dew
The rainbow that is autumn
The white silence of the snow
A mighty silhouette you are
Framed by blue summer sky
A wonder of creation
And a monument to all
Here long before I was born
I pray you’ll be here when I’m gone
I hope your reign will be eternal
And that your empire will live on
Catfish
Morris Pond Export PA
To a small near stagnant pond
A mile or so from home
With an old steel rod and kite string
We’d cast into the foam
A friend, oh, he used to be
And I a friend of his
At least he was that July day
Well I guess that he still is
With gobs of worms upon the hook
I’d draw that rod back high
And with a grace that went unnoticed
I’d let that kite string fly
But alas the string just laid there
Suspended by the goo
No sinkers in my can today
So a rock will have to do
Another cast, the rock falls off
Tie another on again
Then perfection on cast number three
Well, maybe nine or ten
That big old fish is out there still
And he takes my bait once more
I hope that he won’t get