Looking over My Shoulder: One Day in the Elevator and Welcome to Anhedonia

By W.H. Shirk

W. H. Shirk has witnessed life at its best and at its worst in his years serving as a pastor and hospital chaplain. In the first of two collections of poems, Shirk shares poignant, honest, and sometimes amusing snapshots that shine a light on a variety of subjects including career ministry, children, gardening, hunting, headaches, and more. In the second collection, he chronicles his personal spiritual journey beginning in a troubled and broken home leading to the churches and hospitals of western Pennsylvania all the while feeling himself increasingly estranged from God. Along the way, he enters Anhedoniaa strange, bland world where joy and satisfaction are unknown.

In richly detailed lyrical verse, Shirk provides an emotional glimpse into his struggle solving the family puzzle in his recall of the past, eventually finding forgiveness, peace, and the strength to move forward into a richer experience of life. Looking Over My Shoulder shares a pastors insightful poetry as he strives with and finally makes peace with God, learning that in life we can only do the best that we can.

• Language: English
• Publisher: iUniverse
• Release date: May 21, 2015
• ISBN: 9781491760819

W.H. Shirk

W. H. Shirk is a retired pastor and institutional chaplain. He earned a bachelor’s degree in Speech from Penn State University and a Master of Divinity from Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky. His poems have been published in several periodicals and an anthology. He lives with his wife, Kathy, in West Miffl in, Pennsylvania.

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Copyright © 2015 W. H. Shirk.

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ISBN: 978-1-4917-6082-6 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4917-6081-9 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2015905209

iUniverse rev. date: 5/7/2015

Contents

Acknowledgements

Introduction

BOOK I: ONE DAY IN THE ELEVATOR

courtesy

chaplain, 0330

Working for the County

Death in the Nursing Home

memorial service

Another AIDS Patient

help yourself, lady (and forgive me for saying so)

In the Iron City

another dad poem

19 y. o. white male, m. v. a.

Waiting with Monet

consultation at the gate

son-in-law

one day in the elevator

The Great Physician, Board Certified

Marriage Counseling: Jake & Amy

The X-X’s

Putting Out Another Fire

under the care of physicians

Psychiatrists

degree

cooling my heels in the hall

February quarter-to-four

Pastoral Lament

headache

massive migraine with vomiting and then you dump the bike in the yard on the stupid mud slick ramp going into the shed

the migraine inspired poem or the road less traveled or the buck stops here

denial: on the way to heck in a handbag

another depressing poem not about me

The Downside of Being the Reverend

Late in the Day

The Hard Grace of God

another drunken xmas

The Garden in Winter

Good Friday

Groundhog Day

Mother’s Day

old shoes

feeding the garden

recrimination

Revelation at Kentucky Lake

Bananas on Francis Street

Swan Lake

Beebadobba-doobadobba

the cult rites of autumn

to dance at the fire

Good Ole Boys: Early Sixties

Gilbert

turning the crank one more time

faith

BOOK II: WELCOME TO ANHEDONIA

Winter Petition on a February Friday

at 50 on Ziln

the old chaplain strolls the mean streets of hell

Sigmund Fraud

welcome to anhedonia

Genesis

Therapy

Only Begotten Son I & II

Daddy, Daddy, Daddy

Marion’s Dilemma

Only Begotten Son III

Little Boy with Stick: The Call, 1955

Happy Days

In the Ministerium

Only Begotten Son IV

tasting beer

victims of bad theology

Only Begotten Son V

At Roadside America

Only Begotten Son VI

life and death in the Garden Spot

Only Begotten Son VII

sayings of my father

Trial Separation, 1963

Only Begotten Son VIII

wise-ass

bitterly cynical private note to self on a cold rainy day in anhedonia

Only Begotten Son IX

the origin of my passivity

thinking about Dad again

Society of Chaplains Retreat

Only Begotten Son X

About the Author

The word happiness exists in every language; it is plausible the thing itself exists.

—JORGE LUIS BORGES

Acknowledgements

Grateful acknowledgment is made to the editors of the following periodicals where these poems first appeared, some in slightly different versions: The Journal of Pastoral Care and Counseling (Death in the Nursing Home, help yourself, lady [and forgive me for saying so], Consultation at the Gate, another dad poem, son-in-law, cooling my heels in the hall, In the Iron City); Chaplaincy Today (Waiting with Monet, 19 y. o. white male, m. v. a., Swan Lake, chaplain, 0330, Courtesy, degree, The Great Physician, Board Certified, under the care of physicians, one day in the elevator, Beebadobba-doobadobba); Healing Ministry (Memorial Service).

Good Friday originally appeared on the internet poetry webzine Horrible Reality Land at www.horriblerealityland.com.

Another dad poem, help yourself lady (and forgive me for saying so), cooling my heels in the hall, In the Iron City, and son-in-law also appeared in the anthology, Special Visions: Poems by and for Pastoral Caregivers edited by Orlo Strunk, Jr., Ph.D., and published by iUniverse.

~

I also wish to thank my son, Ethan, for valuable technical assistance in preparing the manuscript; my sister Susan Shirk, for policing punctuation, sense and syntax; my wife Kathy, and Ethan for serving as