Life Is Employed

By William Flewelling

Faces and actions of people and animals; the flair of nature and the subtleties of interaction; the way life arrives for me to observe and live, to hear and sense, to engagethat is what spawns my poetry. Those poems selected and chosen from a past, with a few more contemporary in their lure to me and my pencil, are drawn together in this collection as a sampler of my engagement with life. I hope you find them engaging and inviting so that you may entertain the actions of the poem as it writes itself upon your mind, creating there your own experience of life, readying for the open engagement with what life directly brings to bear upon you.

• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse
• Release date: Nov 16, 2016
• ISBN: 9781524650759

William Flewelling

I am a retired minister from the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) living in central Illinois. Led by a request from Mildred Corwin of Manua OH when I arrived there in 1976, I long developed and led a series of bible studies there and in LaPorte IN and New Martinsville WV. These studies proved to be very feeding to me in my pastoral work and won a certain degree of following in my congregations. My first study was on 1 Peter, chosen because I knew almost nothing about the book. I now live quietly in retirement with my wife of 54 years, a pair of dogs and several cats.

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© 2016 William Flewelling. All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.

Published by AuthorHouse   11/16/2016

ISBN: 978-1-5246-5076-6 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-5246-5075-9 (e)

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Contents

Foreword

1.  The Waitress in Blue Jeans

2.  This Is The Hat’s Fourth Easter

3.  Along The River Wall

4.  Two Preachers Talk

5.  Prelude On The Afternoon Of New Clients

6.  The Warning Woman

7.  At Nashota House

8.  At The Edge Of The Patio

9.  The Soft Bigotry of High Expectations

10.  And Then A Poem Molds Desire

11.  He Says My Mother’s Maiden Name

12.  In Extra Large

13.  By Day And Night

14.  ‘tis Prom Night

15.  With The Handle In My Hand

16.  One Butterfly In Flight

17.  Images Of Memorial Day: Today

18.  Single Tulip By The Walk

19.  One Long Exchange Of Eye

20.  With Empty Time

21.  And So I Hear

22.  With Glistening Hands She Rubs

23.  The Play of Ice Cream

24.  With Puffs Of Breath

25.  Inquiring Glance

26.  She Turns To Smile

27.  Accident

28.  She Tells Her Thoughts

29.  After The Christmas Poems

30.  As She Reads Poetry

31.  Dogwood Appears

32.  Winter Crows

33.  How We Behave For Ourselves

34.  Turkeys, We Believe

35.  Unleashed Upon A Sigh

36.  Shone Crescent Moon Upon The Blue

37.  Hi

38.  First Real Snow Of Winter

39.  Toboggan On The Waves In Sheen

40.  At The Lure Of A Snow White Slope

41.  All About Rosemary On An Otherwise Day

42.  Casually Intent

43.  Attracting The Toddler’s Face

44.  Into The Woods Behind

45.  Excitement For The Day

46.  They’re Flocking Now

47.  Taking To Skipping

48.  At The Polls

49.  Fair Greeting Well Expended

50.  Portrait Of Unknowing

51.  Chad

52.  The Bag Of Toys Held Well

53.  Owned Poetry

54.  Pleased Decorations

55.  After Disaster

56.  She’d Wondered What Claudette Colbert Would Do

57.  Mr. Wooden: In Memoriam

58.  Below The Short-trimmed Hair

59.  On Knowing My Age

60.  Within A Niche Of Time

61.  For Our Enjoyment

62.  Taking A Seat At Chore

63.  Surprised

64.  Untouching Worlds

65.  Santa’s Mutation

66.  Investigative Dragonflies

67.  Mixing Bowl: A Still Life

68.  One Penny’s Worth Of Thought

69.  Anxious To Please

70.  As If A Summer Night In May

71.  Duly Angry

72.  Wind Ridden Sight

73.  December’s List: The Chronicle

74.  This Fourth Of July

75.  The Acolyte

76.  Persistent Litter

77.  Her Catship

78.  Pendant On The Sway

79.  Going To Vote

80.  A Listen In The Night

81.  The Jeans In Style

82.  One Quick Lick

83.  Courtesies Around A Tin Of Tea

84.  A Summer Morning Happenstance

85.  An Empty Room

86.  The Thicket Prone

87.  Supposed To Be Like Leaves

88.  Just Rumors

89.  Around An Afternoon Sweet

90.  Named

91.  The Weariness Arrives

92.  With Rebellious Innards

93.  Hovhaness’ Magic

94.  Caring For Mixed Orders

95.  The Race Begun

96.  The Man Of Sure Importance Comes

97.  Quite On Ahead

98.  Delayed Reply

99.  Late Night Presence At The Cat Food Dish

100.  The Stillness Stays

101.  Pleasantries As Interlude

102.  Night’s Weaving Pall

103.  A Fox Discovery

104.  Escaping

105.  The Bounce Of Skirt

106.  Coming To The Customer

107.  An Interrupted Monologue

108.  Ernie And Helen – And Me

109.  Bright Golden Face

110.  Prolonged Preparation

111.  The Change Arrives

112.  Brushed Hastily

113.  Quiver

114.  Alexander Nevsky: Field of the Dead

115.  Lithe Friendliness

116.  Quickened Sight

117.  Above The River Valley

118.  She’s Here

119.  Disapproved

120.  Intentional Trajectory

121.  Last Trip Out Before The Night

122.  Two Minutes Left