Poetic Potpourri

By Robert Turner

Some of the poems were written to describe various travel adventures, whereas others describe specific landmarks that were of interest. Many are just whimsical subjects that would pop into my mind as I was trying to go to sleep. Rather than counting sheep, I would compose a poem and hope that I would remember it in the morning so I could put the words on paper in poetic form. There is one epic poem on the Battle of Chancellorsville and one on Stonewall Jackson’s death and several Irish poems.

As I said earlier, this is an eclectic collection. I have enjoyed writing them, and I hope you enjoy reading them.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: May 31, 2019
• ISBN: 9781796037340

Robert Turner

Dr. Robert Turner is currently the owner and CEO of Network Neurology in Charleston SC. He is also Associate Clinical Professor of Neurosciences at the Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston, as well as an Associate Researcher with the MIND Research Institute in Irvine CA. Dr Turner maintains a full-time clinical, teaching, and neurophysiology practice with patients throughout the southeastern region of the United States. While continuing full time work at MUSC since 1997, he obtained a Master’s degree in clinical research (epidemiology & biostatistics) in 2003 in the MUSC College of Graduate Studies, and has since then been actively involved in ongoing clinical research with collaborative studies in non-invasive neurostimulation and neuromodulation techniques as well as advanced techniques of EEG source analysis. Current research involves collaborating with colleagues in Charleston, Cape Town, South Africa, Mexico City, Bejing, and with several academic practices throughout the United States. Dr Turner began as a music and foreign language major in college, changing over to pre-medicine in his 3rd year. During medical school, he also pursued Master’s training in Piano Performance at the University of Nebraska at Omaha Graduate School. After Medical School, his postgraduate training consisted of internship/residency in Pediatrics followed by two fellowships, one in Adult/Child Neurology, and the second in Clinical Neurophysiology/EMG/Neuromuscular Disorders, and his current clinical/research emphases are pediatric epilepsy/epileptogenesis, the non-linear effects of auditory and music stimulation on the brain, as well as neuromodulation techniques. He continues to pursue his love of music, and is an accomplished classical pianist. He has received numerous awards and honors in Charleston over the past 16 years, including multiple Faculty Excellence Awards for teaching, AREA Awards for excellence in ambulatory care, Golde Apple Nominations and Awards, and double honors in humanism with the AAMC Humanism in Medicine Award and the Leonard Tow Humanism in Medicine Award Dr. Turner is multiply Board-Certificated by the National Board of Medical Examiners, became a certified member of the American Society of Neurorehabilitation in 1992, and has eight medical specialty boards certifications: 1. American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology With Special Qualification in Child Neurology, 2. American Board of Pediatrics, 3. American Board of Electrodiagnostic Medicine, 4. American Board of Clinical Neurophysiology, 5. American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology With Added Qualification in Clinical Neurophysiology, 6. American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology With Added Qualification in Neurodevelopmental Disabilities , 7. Quantitative Electroencephalograpy (QEEG) Certification Board, and 8. American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology With Added Qualification in Epilepsy.

Book preview

POETIC

POTPOURRI

ROBERT TURNER

Copyright © 2019 by Robert Turner.

ISBN:      Softcover      978-1-7960-3735-7

                eBook           978-1-7960-3734-0

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: 06/13/2019

Xlibris

1-888-795-4274

www.Xlibris.com

797003

In

memory of my wife.

image%201.jpg

This book of Poetry is dedicated to my late wife

Ellise Brown Puddin Weldon Turner

1932-2016

May God rest her soul till we meet again.

CONTENTS

Introduction

A Spring Crestline Walk

Why Life?

Autumn Craze

Beyond

Birds

Chancellorsville

Death

Die Mauer

Getaway

Early Morning

Fitty

Gumbo

Here Comes Spring

I Miss You

Italian Holiday

Last One Standing

Life Eternal

Now

Ode To A Tulip

Ode To Van Cliburn

Old Athlete

Old Santa Fe

The Sky Of Santa Fe

Pikes Peak

Red Chili

Retirement

Reunion

Saturday Night

She Is The One

The Burren

W.b. Yeats

The Cliffs Of Donegal

Finn Mac Cool

A Toast To Guiness Stout

The Wee People

The Carter Ranch

Reverie

The Feeling

The Kings

The Knights Templar

The Lowly Grape

The Martini

The Panther City

The Rite Of Spring

The River

The Sublime

The Urban Squirrel

Those Behind

Viet Nam

Where Will You Go

Why

You

INTRODUCTION

According to Websters Dictionary, the second definition of Potpourri is a Confused collection or hodge-podge. That is exactly what this collection of poetry is and thus the name of the book. Some poems are whimsical while others are serious and even morbid. There is an epic poem and numerous odes.

I have had no training in creative writing other than what one receives in college English literature. I especially have had none in poetry writing. Oh, I have read a book on a beginner’s guide to writing a poem; but that’s all. It is just something that I started in retirement along with essays, a children’s book and art. As you will see, I rely heavily on that old adage Poetic License. If you would have to define my style, I guess one would call it formal. I do not like free verse. It seems more like a short short story composed of multiple metaphors known only to the author who challenges the reader to decipher what he/she means. To me, a poem should have meter giving it rhythm and it should also rhyme. The rhyme scheme can be a-b, a-b or aa-bb. I prefer the latter. Longer poems, I divide into stanzas of four lines while in shorter poems I do not divide into stanzas at all. I try to stay with ten syllables per line, plus or minus one. I do not try to alter the emphasis of the syllables