The Book of Fours: Collected Poems

By Steve K. Bertrand

The Art of Writing Poetry

I can walk the same berry patch
several different times,
and find a ripened berry
hidden somewhere amongst the vines.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Mar 30, 2017
• ISBN: 9781524590352

Steve K. Bertrand

For this pictorial history of Paine Field, Steve K. Bertrand has selected more than 200 images from the local community, historical societies, regional libraries, and state archives. He has traced the rich history of Paine Field from its earliest days to its present status as a bustling airport and commercial aviation center. These photographs provide a glimpse into the people and events that influenced this small community in the Pacific Northwest.

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Copyright © 2017 by Steve K. Bertrand.

ISBN:      Softcover           978-1-5245-9034-5

                 eBook                 978-1-5245-9035-2

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

Rev. date: 03/25/2017

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Contents

Preface

The Art of Writing Poetry

The Habit of Gossiping

The Woman Who’s Firmly Made Up Her Mind

On A Spring Morning

Approaching Autumn

In a Tangle of Weeds

With Butterfly Bush in Purple Bloom

No Sign of Winter

Sneezeweed

She’s a Very Beautiful Woman

The Only Religion I Need

Picking Marionberries

Growing Old on a Baseball Diamond

Chi

A Kiss Good-bye

Had You Offered Me the Moon

Hushing the Wind

As Far as Wearing Clothing Goes

The Simplest Song

The Rings of Saturn

In the Distance

A Chorus of Bullfrogs

Irish Blessing

On Making Headway

Devil’s Luck

The Meaning of Zen

Gypsy

On the Side of Your Beautiful Face

A Plant Will Find a Place to Grow

Somewhere in the Middle

Beware the Killing Frost

Utopia

Nautical Advice from my Wife

John Stinky

The Bestiary

Chopping Wood

Hinoki

An Anthropologist Speaks of his Time

On the Edge of my Dreams

There’s Something Wrong with your Wedding Ring

Life’s Ambitions

To be Extinct

The Game of Golf

The Monk & Fisherman

’50 Ford Studebaker

High as These Peaks

Little-Known Fact

Beneath Your Gentle Hand

The Champion

A Life Fulfilled

The Bumblebee

Since Retirement

Dinner at the Gospel Mission

Claudius, the Braggart

Cinisca

Wake Early Enough

My Love for Mountains

Good Samaritan

Talk About Your Insomnia

Hungry Birds

Yellow Canaries

Lesson of the Blossoming Dogwood

Something Could Be Learned

This Ain’t the Horse on Which I Rode to Town

So, You Would Like to Run a Marathon

A Gracious Host

Freudian Slip

Beyond the Safety of My Cave

Moles

16th Street Market

Late into the Night

Sostratus of Cnidus

The Colossus of Rhodes

My Father was a Whisky Man

Marriage

Beautiful Girl

A Pocket Full of Pennies

Give Me the Primitive Ways of the Past

My Way

Common Street Names

It Often Rains in the Pacific Northwest

Winter Storms

Yellow Bamboo

Sea Turtles

Sometimes When I’m Feeling Puzzled

Tossing Rocks

First Day of Spring

Early Spring

Against Her Better Reason

The Simplest Things

Song of the Bullfrogs

Final Exam

Worn Penny

A Child’s Prayer

Morning Birds

Watching a Storm above Horse Mountain

Mortality

Come Spring

Dilemma

Reincarnation

On Goats & Sheep

I Measure My Progress Against the Tortoise

A Poet’s Heart

Whisky Song

Stopping at the Pioneer Cemetery

Oracle Bones

Questions for the Birds

On the Meaning of Words

Taking Steady Aim

Autumn Memory

Lingering Thoughts

Passing Storm

Because I Could Not Bring the Sea

Life of Zen

Liquid Diet

Regrets

Irish Widow

Daily News

Silence is the World of Golfers

Pushups

Golden House

Charting the Unknown

Companionship

Knowing

Preacher Man

The Faintest Memory

How Do You Carve a Totem Pole?

Stellar Jay

Far as Your Spirit Will Carry You

Bananas

In the Forest of Mother Nature

Another Year

Fire & the Fife

Zen & the Art of Running

Every Morning

This Ever Changing World

The Hummingbird

My Wife’s Complaint

Blue Moon

Sipping Riesling

Grandma’s Peony Bulbs

The Guy I Used to Know

The Quitter

A Vital Part of Life

The Buddha & Saint Francis

Orsippus of Megara

Beginnings

To Meadow’s Edge

Of Planters & Politicians

The Lion & its Pride

Stone Buddhas

The Blossom & the Butterfly

Fisherman

Hobbies

Dwelling in the Real World

Watching a Fisherman on Possession Sound

The Physical World

Granola Girl

Pulp Fiction

Ruling the Roost

Complaint to the Moon

Vanities

Island Time

Rich Man, Poor Man

Best Intentions

Now You’ve Gone

When I Sip Peach Tea

She is Happiest Tending to her Garden

Watching

On Transsexuals

Spring Jubilee

Love Cycles

Waiting on my Muse

Li Po Suction Defined

Ponder This…

Perfect Diction

Ivan the Terrible

Vatican II

Mount Saint Michaels

A Note on Predation…

Drama Queen

El Indio Swisso

Thoughts on a Dying Friend

Driving ’Cross America

Bird Song

Whispering Stones

A Poem for You

Yellow Bamboo

Paupers & Princes

He is Just a Lonely Old Man

Letting Go

The Boat I Sailed Through Childhood On

Ode to a Nam Vet

The Princess & the Pea

A Woman of Untroubled Dreams

Achilles Heel

Ode for the Tenth Muse

Indian Summer

Rabbits

River Rising

On Berries & Rhubarb

Sometimes When I Play My Guitar

The Simple Life

Hiking the Pacific Crest Trail

The Old Man’s Beard

Spring

When Eagle Spreads his Majestic Wings

Poet of the Boardwalk

The Fisherman’s Ritual

Meditations on an Evening at the Beach

Down with the Flu

Red-Tailed Hawk

Tulips

Drought

Gazing Upon Stars

Folklore or Meteorology?

Oksana

My Neighbor

I’m Not an Ernest Hemingway

Shenandoah

Eighty Days without a Drop of Rain

Bullfrog’s Song

A Spanish Lullaby

Watching Koi from my Window

Dogwood

Prayer for a Friday

After Communion

All Along the Potomac

Without a Sound

What Remains

Poet’s Dilemma

Forest

Such is Life

Fate

Appearances

Influences

Questions

Autumn Afternoon

Winter Garden

Archimedes’ Tomb

Summer Sonata

Flavius Metrobius

Sarapoin

Speak Only to the Full Moon

Wind in my Sails

The Oarswoman

Spider

I Get up Every Morning

As I Think I Am

A Response to my Wife’s Inquiry

while Feeling Sick

So Far Out

Planting Perennials

The Compromise

Battle of the Greasy Grass, or…

Spirits

While I Explore the Great Divide

A Thousand Words

The Predator & the Temptress

As Far as Nature is Concerned

My Heart

Needy Men

Atop the Heavenly Bamboo