Tapestry Two: Older, Bolder & Better

By Edward Schwartz and Joan Schwartz

THE LAST LINE

Spring again, the air is warm
Thoughts are hazy, lazy day
A line slips out and disappears
Dandelion fluff, It blows away.

I search my mind, it won’t return
Decide I will remain at home
And ponder why the poet tries
And thinks that he can write a poem.

A wisp returns, that line I lost
The blowing wind a seed did find
A brand new home, a place to grow
In the fertile fields of my mind.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Sep 21, 2018
• ISBN: 9781984554161

Edward Schwartz

In this, his second book, Tapestry Two - older, bolder and better, Ed Schwartz brings his wife, Joan, fully into his new book with thirty seven of her own poems in a section all her own. Joan started writing with the tragedy of her daughter’s death from breast cancer at the age of thirty-eight. She wrote for less then two years but in that time turned out some beautiful poetry about life,death, love and children. She hopes that when you read these poems it will help in your mourning. Or simply remembering the good things and the way we must all go on to honor the memory of our loved ones. Ed and Joan live in the lovely condo community called Lake Barrington Shores just 35 miles northwest of Chicago.

Book preview

Copyright © 2018 by Edward Schwartz.

Library of Congress Control Number:         2018911148

ISBN:             Hardcover         978-1-9845-5418-5

                       Softcover          978-1-9845-5417-8

                       eBook                978-1-9845-5416-1

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.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.

Rev. date: 09/20/2018

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Contents

A Board Member’s Prayer

Valentine (2/14/40)

Our Gift to a New Love

New Year’s Again

Holiday Yarn

Unhappy Is Happy

The Unicorn

If I Ruled the World

Quest

Flourish with Adversity

The Names at Kaddish

The Vanishing Jew

A Prayer for Lester

Rosh Hashanah (New Year)

The Chaplain

Our Way

The Solution for Pollution

Cry for Life

Vanity and the Mirror

Interview with the Face in the Mirror

I’ll Drink to That

My Mom

Anyta with a Y

Faith

Who Are You?

A Journey of Fifty Years

Dream Fantasy

Energy Crisis

Limp on, Achilles

Sampson’s Dilemma

Through the Eyes Of …

Stand and Reflect

Father and Son

Science or Poetry

Poet’s Dilemma

No Halloween, Please

Epitaph

My Heart Is a Predator

Falling Asleep

Three Short Poems

Waste of Time

Night Fright

Love in the House

Good Day, Sunrise

River of Stones

Throwback

Raspberry Delight

Circle of Friends (for John)

Pool Sharks

Our Song Forever

Memory

I Forget

Luke

Witches I Have Known

Old Age and Food

Black, Gold, and White

Invisible Strings

If You Weren’t Here

As I Love

Days of Wonder

The Last Waltz

Giving Back

Lake County Blues, Illinois

Color

Remembering the Important Things (a Man’s View)

Dependents

The Rook Will Know

A Chip in My Heart

Her Favorite Dish

Vanity

Vanity (Imagist)

The Written Word

Time

Slip Away

Remember the Names

May 20, 1936

I Don’t Buy Green Bananas Anymore

Little Works of Art

The Devil, You Say

Photograph

When

Tempus Fugit

Where Has My Country Gone?

Your Turn

The Hummingbird’s Dance

Not PC

Stage Left—Farewell

Read

Born Last Year

Two Vines Planted

Renewal

Fog

Exercise Your Mind

Sixty Years

Lament (1983)

Lament (2018)— a New Look

The Sentinel

Youth to an Age

Death Is a Pebble

Missed It Again

A Fond Farewell

The Seven Names of Deborah Schwartz

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

Part 5

Part 6

Part 7

Poetry by Joan

Time Will Heal

A Love as Old as Time

A Sabbath Prayer

God’s Plan for Man

My Heart

To My Husband

To My Mother

Life’s Journey

A Parent’s Wish

To a Son Estranged

The Face in the Mirror

A Daughter’s Goodbye (to Her Mother) at 102 Years

Stop Complaining

Don’t Give Up

The Sweetness of Prayer

My Love

Nourishment

With Pen in Hand

The Meaning of Life

Bashert (Meant to Be)

Fly, My Daughter

Work in Progress

Children of War

Deborah’s Prayer to her children

Two Souls

A Mourner’s Prayer

Walk Tall

One Needs Love

Saying Goodbye

Teach Them Well

We Will Never Forget

Reflections during Mourning

Food for the Soul

My Aching Heart

What Life Teaches

This book of poetry is

dedicated to my three grandchildren—Menachem, Shaindel, and Yossi. They gave me my email name (edrocks) and keep my iPad current at least once every year.

And to all the poetry lovers in Lake Barrington Shores, thank you for buying my books.

And above all, thanks to my wife, Joan, of now sixty years whose poetry has its own section in this book. Love you too.

Preface

May 2018—Lake Barrington, Illinois

I thought, This could be my time.

As my eighty-second birthday approached, I was in pain from my left hip down and across the middle of my body. At least five doctors, including my own GP, could not find the source of the pain.

Steroids would kill the pain for six to seven days, but then it would return in spades, but only at night. I’d sleep three hours and then walk the floor, take another Tylenol, and get another hour of sleep. I still worked during the day, but lack of sleep was hurting my driving.

After ten months of doctors, therapists, and chiropractors and trying other odd therapies, I talked to my GP again. You’ve got to do something. I’m not sure of what I’ll be doing if we don’t find an answer.

I liked my GP. He had been my doctor for twenty-three years. But when he said Let’s try some new MRIs, my heart dropped. How many had we done in the last year? Let’s focus on the lower back, he said. But that was not where it hurt!

I said, Then OK. Let’s do it.

I took the MRI the next day, and two hours later, I got this interesting call. I think we found something. These were the best words I’d heard in a year. There is a schwannoma [what?] growing between your first and second vertebrae, hanging on a nerve that goes toward the rump and around the front of your body. It sounded like an answer, but was it good news or bad? And any chance of cancer?

Let’s skip ahead to the neurosurgeon he sent me to who reiterated exactly what my doctor had told me. I also learned that a high percentage of these were not cancerous. My next question was, If we remove the schwannoma, will my pain be gone? He was 90 percent sure it would solve the problem. When do you want to schedule this for? Now or as soon as possible?

It was two weeks to my birthday, and his first opening was May 25, five days after my birthday. Sold, I said.

I now had two weeks to think about the surgery. Let’s see. I was an active eighty-two-year-old with no bad physical problems, but back surgery? What about work, playing pool, bowling? And besides that, would I make it through?

You know, of course, that everything went right with the operation. I was walking the second day and was sent home. Four weeks later, I was driving, lifting, and best of all, still living my life. My pain was entirely gone. The sun was shining, and all was well with my world, at least for now. I thought, This is my time! Let me use it and put out my second book, Tapestry Two: Older, Bolder, and Better, with a special section for Joan’s poems, which gave new meaning to love, children, and mourning.

A Board Member’s Prayer

I have been a member

Of every board that’s known

Ran a thousand meetings

Reaped the words I’ve sown

Still in all I’m happy

The reason is, you see

Once in a while, along the way

A few said thanks to me.

Valentine (2/14/40)

It is to you, my love,

On this auspicious day,

I dedicate my thoughts so free

Because you made them stay.

It used to be so hard to write,

To let my mind flow free.

But now they seem to fall in line.

Read on, my love, and see.

Now in the winter of ’72,

With Aquarius as your sign,

Born on that lovely day

When we