Good Grief: And Other Looks Inside

By Harry W. Candler Jr.

At the University of Texas at Arlington, where I was the head of the ROTC, we had just won the national pistol championship, beating West Point, Texas A&M, and lots of other entrants. One of my soldiers came to me and asked, Colonel, what do you not do well? Without reflective thought at all, I replied, I pick wives poorly. So true.

This book, however, is a collection of thoughts written to the ladies of my life from one scrap of time to the next. It is about pain, hope, anticipation, and advice to those who, hopefully, will be successful in matters of the heart, where I was not. The fault, if that is the right word, is none but my own. Welcome inside.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Jan 17, 2018
• ISBN: 9781543471717

Book preview

Contents

Title

Man at the Bench

The Wizard

Today

bell

Her Mirror

untitled

The Smoker

Night Watchman

clock

Star Counter

3:20 A.M.

Mary

shadow

the maze

Zero Sum

Realization

The last piece

I Don’t

Find me

The Movie

Love - Here - There

Dream Keeper

My Name is Alone

drag

The path

Bill’s Prayer

Whitehorse

Mary Ann’s Wave

Why

Torch

Her Daughter

Her Hand — My Hand

Drop

Dear Mister Whomever

Annie

Healer

Pauline

Steve and Julie

Felicia

found

Pathway

Traveler

of the Lady

Two Words

the forest

Divorce

Bye

Asphalt Flowers

Blink

The Coinage

Dad

The Galaxy Keeper

God Sends

for the Graduate

happy! by request

Holiday’s Here

Kathleen

the kitchen

Ms Annie V

Lisa

Love is. . . 

More Happy

Mother’s Day

Ocean’s Ship

pain

path

Short sentiment

Silence

SunKeeper

Sadim

the Cure

the She

Valentine Angel

Very Late

Wizard II

Your Path

for the lady

No Matter

The Circus Dog

CP

CP2

CP III

For Sale

The Children of the Fourth

Creation

For My Sister. . . 

Ms Julie

Again

Who?

Lovely

my Army

The Last One

BEGINS THE LATER WORKS, BOOK II !

Haunter of Dreams

Have a good weekend

Jeanne Marie

A Dream

True Love

A light

My Visit to the North

Night, her face

the math

… forgive

She’s Gone

A birthday wish

To _____

Beauty .

goodnight lady

Time

Real, One Day

hand

My Dream Today

Memory

… the dark is gone

Shhhh

no title

I Have You

Your Grace

Valentine’s

Sunshine

The Standard of Women

The dark

Virgin eyes you say.

Rental

Guess Who?

What’s a Day?

Grant this new day

Reverberations

Fourth of July, 2010

NEW WORKS!

A puppy story

Do what’s right

goodnight lady

Love when?

Maple Tree

Ms Taylor

my (?) clock

My Dream Today

Ode to a Younger Woman

Relevant?

Smile

Smilin’ Ed Johnson’s First Day

Something is wrong

Taylor

The call

Warrior

Your Name

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Dedication

To my dad, whose shadow I can barely reach and in whose image I pale; for God’s gift of three marvelous children: Julie, Andrew, Natalie; thence to Brother and to my Sister. Sister, the word is far too small. Anne, who jumped into my heart at my birth and has been its owner and pilot ever since. Thank you ‘seeeester’. I love you, as far as the mind can see.

Man at the Bench

Say,

look at that old man there.

Firmly on the park bench

Warming in the sun.

How sad he must feel

Aging for so long

So little life here left.

              Say, look at that young man, yonder.

              From this bench

              He just a baby resembles.

              Youthful face, free of life’s wrinkle.

              How sad he should feel

              So much of life’s trial is yet his.

My, old timer

Are you creaky, pained with arthritis

Eyes hurt to squint?

Stairs hard to manage?

Fearful of a big illness to end your days?

              Say, young man.

              Do you know how many bouts

              Of flu, cold, injury -

              Of heartache, debt and sadness -

              Of deceit and fraud and theft

              Will on your life be heaped?

              And so much of it yet to go.

Be at peace, old man.

I am because you were

And for a while yet you are.

              Peace be with you young fella’

              You’ll be all right

              I’ll gladly show your way

              And in a weathr’d journal

              Write the formula for your success. - - -

here:

              Duty, Honor, Country.

they each then went their way.

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The Wizard

 Can I help you, son?

As out from a puff of smoke

Stood the Wizard of All.

"Are the money markets baffling you?

Or, perhaps, you’d like the formulas

                For trajectories to Mars

                Gravitational pulls

                Or Photon Deflection Theory?"

"You’ve lived an honest life

And now can be granted any one wish.

Make it a good one

                That can bring you wealth and greater fame.

Make it a wise one

                As you have but this single

                              Free shot at worldly glory."

Thank you Great Wizard.

The one wish I have

That will benefit the most

Is the answer to this:

How can I stop crying

                At the sound of her name?

Or, when inevitably, Our heartbeats

                Become one in a handshake across distances --

                The drops rush from my eyes

                                Splashing my soul across the ground.

Please, make me as I was

A thousand years ago

                Before this Girl consumed me.

"I’m but a Wizard, son,

                Not a God

Your answer lies much higher

                than my own pointed hat permits.

I’d give you great wealth