Grains of Sand

By Joseph Cidell

A compilation of poetry written in the 20th century by a Polish-American man who lived in Indiana and Chicago.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lulu.com
• Release date: Dec 28, 2015
• ISBN: 9781329791084

Book preview

Grains of Sand

GRAINS

OF

SAND

by

Joseph Cidell

Edited by Lauren Cidell

Copyright

© 2015 by Lauren Cidell

All Rights Reserved

First Edition, 2015

Cover design by Lauren Cidell

ISBN:  978-1-329-79108-4

WARNING:  MUSIC AND DANCING contains language some readers may find offensive.

Dedication

In loving memory of Josephine Zavilla Cidell, beloved wife, mother, and grandmother

Editor’s Note

In the spring after my grandparents passed away I helped my parents clear out their house in Indiana.  Everything had to be packed up and stored or thrown out because the house had been sold and the new owners were moving in next week.

In my grandfather’s office I found business cards for his construction company, photographs of him playing the clarinet with his jazz band, and a certificate proclaiming him a member of the National Geographic Society.  Tucked away in a drawer of his desk, almost as an afterthought, I found a small crumbling black binder notebook.  Typed on its yellowing pages were my grandfather’s poems.

Stunned would pretty well describe what I felt at that moment.  Grampa had always encouraged me in my own writing, but I never knew that he wrote himself.  I’d assumed the writing resources he’d passed on to me were left over from his teaching days.  At that moment I felt somehow cheated.  That my grandfather’s mind had been destroyed before I was mature enough talk to him one writer to another is one of my greatest personal tragedies.

I took the notebook home with me and over the years took the time to type them up on a computer.  At first I intended to simply preserve them for the family.  Now, thanks to advances in publishing, I can share them with the world.

I have made some technical corrections in the matters of spelling and punctuation, but the words are the same as when my grandfather first put them on paper.

--Lauren Cidell

CONTENTS

ON A SANDY HILL

SPIRIT OF 1932

ONCE I WISHED I WAS RIVER

OUTDOOR PEACE

GIVE IT A NUMBER AND WAIT

WHAT WOULD THEY HAVE

A WISH

TO HAVE IT COMEBACK

SADNESS

NIGHT ON THE RIVER

BILL MACRATH

TINSHACKTOWN

THE SONG OF LIFE

MUSIC AND DANCING

I KNOW

SPEED

THE FAIR IN THE MORNING

THE LAGOON

THE END OF A JOURNEY

THE END

21. TWO DEATHS

22. MY INDIANA

23. TO MY FAVORITE POET

24. CRAZY THOUGHTS

25. A DESIRE

26. NIGHT ON THE STREET

27. ONCE IN THE MOON LIGHT

28. BUDDIES

29. ONE GOODBYE

30. SHADES OF GRAY IN WINTER

31. THE POST OFFICE

32. DAY DREAMS

33. SWEET AND LOW THE SONG OF LIFE

34. LOEVLY LADY

35. INDIANA DUNES

36. CHICAGO

37. I AM YOUNG

38. THE CITY

39. SPRING

40. THE CITY SPOILS MEN

41. A LA MODE

42. THE COUNTRYSIDE

43. MUSIC OF THE LAKE

44. A POET

45. WHITE SHEETS OF PAPER

46. COURAGE

47. ONE MAN

48. A THOUGHT

49. A KIND OF MIXER

50. A FRIEND

51. POOR TAN

52. WOODS AT NIGHT

53. MY LOVE

54. ODE TO THE AMERICAN DREAMER

55. POETRY

56. SOLITUDE