Complete Works of Thomas L Cole: A Life of Love Beside My Love. a Love Journey Guided by God.

By Thomas L Cole

Thomas L Cole, ‘Tom” was Born in Fort Benning, GA on 1940, son of Col George M. Cole, West Point graduate, and Frances L Cole.
Tom graduated from Peacock Military Academy in San Antonio, Texas and earned his Bachelor’s Degree in Mathematics from the University of Texas. He retired as a Master Sergeant from the United States Army in 1997.
Married to Martha B Cole in 1966 for 51 years; father of George and Katherine and grandfather of three grandchildren. Tom was a Mason 32nd Degree member of The Scottish Right and a Master Mason of Steele Creek Masonic Lodge #0737 and was Worthy Patron 4 times at Steele Creek Chapter Order of The Eastern Star. Tom, along with Martha, was a proud member of Good Shepherd Church UMC.

• Language: English
• Publisher: iUniverse
• Release date: Mar 2, 2020
• ISBN: 9781532096518

Thomas L Cole

An Army vet, from Vietnam to Desert Storm. From Texas to Charlotte. A deep devoted Christian, husband, father, friend, mentor, guide and example to many others, are a few words that describe TLC; but that just scratches the surface. His writings will give us a deeper understanding of him and us and the world that surrounds us. Always striving to understand and be better, with bumps and doubts along the path. As his writings undoubtably show his life has been guided by his love of Christ, and his live-long compass, that has always kept it pointed north, his wife and lifelong inspiration, Martha.

Book preview

Copyright © 2020 Thomas L Cole.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the author except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

iUniverse

1663 Liberty Drive

Bloomington, IN 47403

www.iuniverse.com

1-800-Authors (1-800-288-4677)

Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

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.

ISBN: 978-1-5320-9650-1 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-5320-9651-8 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2020903931

iUniverse rev. date: 02/28/2020

46920.png

Table of Contents

Primaries

Poetry with Comments

Thomas L. Cole

With

Additional Poetry

S. Morris Cole (My Paternal Grandmother)

December 2012

"Peruse these verses a little while

And may my fancies you beguile."

image%201.jpg

1. On Sitting

It is a fresh pleasure

At least by my measure

To just lie lazy round

Feeling secure and sound

To lounge, then dream not think

Into cushions soft sink

Never more pondering

Mind relaxed wandering

Yet hard think could be good

Much more often I should

So I’ll try to write down

For you my sights and sounds

Showing sweet what I learn

Telling my scenes in turn

If you despise these teasing lines

Depart! Go find more pleasing rhymes

2. Beyond

Our fancies sweetly have their lure

Sirens call, we go avidly

Men of all ages have sought dreams

With pain we go, we want to see

Into the Beyond

We portage past a flashing stream

Far from a border disciplined

Wanting somehow a new somewhere

Seeking a whisper in the wind

Into the Beyond

Across deserts brown dry and bare

Past steep mountains or water fall

The pace quickens, ever, ever

Onward, we hear a guiding call

Into the Beyond

3. Answers

A man yelled at me yet quietly

‘Religion is emotional morality

Mere vague and disappointing lore’

`You are wrong and there is more

We see a part. Listen, please

The mind can not know the heart’

‘No no! You just want to start

To get me to believe as you!

You have nothing, no facts there’

‘In your heart, may I share…?’

‘No, I don’t think you care

It’s all the same; it’s all, all

Shading, fading to an empty end

‘I can not prove an absence, friend

But let me give to you, a present

God is me and you and all that ever were

And the best is God, that’s what I meant’

For a moment he stood there silent

Then unclenched his fists and spoke to me

‘I say I have no heart, you say, we

Have and others say you might

It doesn’t matter, but will someone

Please, please tell me what is really right’

4. Threat and Triumph

I stand here with broken blade in hand

Bodies and blood staining once chaste sand

Is there some way to see sense in this?

Shall I look beyond the nemesis?

The battle for all of us is done

Bitter victory is surely won

My fellows, comrades, what was it for?

Sacrifice and sweat to come no more?

5. Hope #1

Strolling round a corner I may see

A signpost to what I wish to be

Spot a path perhaps not really there

Past a gate bowered with flowers fair

Keep me loving so to God I turn

Shield me from pride so that I will learn

Where is the path that I need to run

East of the moon and west of the sun

These poems are presented in the order they were written, more or less. They are grouped in chronological sets despite revisions over the years. Each set, less or more, may dimly reflect a similar point of mind. If so then each set may be regarded as a meta-poem. After each set there is a short comment about that set period in my life and also on each poem in the set. With some of those annotations I dip my toe into the vast ocean of meter, rhyme, symbolism, alliteration, connotation, etc. to explain how the poem came to be. I have tried to give at least a hint of my feelings at the time. Perhaps they help you see the situations which gave rise to my need for expression and perhaps why/how I used those techniques. All these modes and the emotions expressed are displayed here for you to feel or notice and get some joy or insight. In that hope these poems while not up to Kipling or Swinburne’s rondels may be acceptable. Maybe my efforts are like straggly weeds that aspire to be flowers. Some poems or verses were hopefully improved after changes and some of these are discussed in the comments. Finally many poems were treated to a final smoothing as this collection was being assembled for your delight. If they fail to please you, remember all I can do here for you is to be a presenter of visions.

Set 01 - Poems 1 through 5

This first set takes me from birth, April 27 1940, at Fort Benning, Georgia through high school. I then spent three years doing undergraduate study with a Math major and an English minor at the University of Texas in Austin, Texas prior to joining the United States Army on June 9, 1961. See comment to #12. The two spaces between all sentences in these Comments instead of one came from writing memos when I was a civil servant for the Army starting April 30, 1984. The lack of punctuation in most poems is deliberate. I do use it to reinforce or help the clarity.

I have always liked poetry. I read poems before I was a teenager like ‘The Charge of the Light Brigade’ by Tennyson and ‘Ozymandius’ by Shelley. Three others that I really liked during high school at Peacock Military Academy in San Antonio, Texas, which was not fun because I rebelled too much against authority, were ‘The Raven’ by Poe, parts of ‘Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage’ by Byron, and ‘Jabberwocky’ by Lewis Carroll.

1. On Sitting

Either #1 or #2 is the first poem I saved. It is a youthful reaction to all the exhortations to excel from the staff at Peacock, which I attended from Jan. 1954 to May 25, 1958, after trying my best to not do schoolwork at Alamo Heights Junior High and not obeying my mother at home. My father had already divorced her and moved to Peacock to be a teacher there. I have modified it several times to get a smoother meter and perhaps make it classier while offering homage to the spirit of indulgence. It may be a good start to my two purposes for creating poetry, beautiful expression of time and place and/or exposition of metaphysical ideas.

2. Beyond

This poem also was revised over the years, most recently in 1988. It was an attempt to express the drive toward excitement, adventure, and even romance that I felt then and perhaps a majority of the humanity feels. It is perhaps an inverse to #1. I tried to avoid common images and express that perhaps the desire for newness is behind a lot of adventuring over the prosaicness of ordinary jobs and living. The original impetus may have been A. Merritt’s colorful fantasy ‘The Face in the Abyss’.

3. Answers

This is the first poetic dialogue I wrote. See also #54. Dozens of teen age discussions on philosophy and life and morality are its background. The essence I tried to express is that even without scientific evidence either then and now I believe that people have a soul. Or to be more general, that there is more to us than physical reality. Can there ever be physical evidence of something not physical? I choose to believe in non-physicality. There must be something beyond pain and struggle. In short, I feel (maybe because that’s the way I’m built) there must be answers. Is it possible that the answer is that there is no answer? If so what’s the point?

4. Threat and Triumph

This work (creating poetry is work) is not much revised from the original anapests. The theme is that good must come from and will overcome suffering. Otherwise what is the suffering for? The idea that struggle and life must have purpose lingers in my mind. See comment to #3. The first two lines may not make too much sense. After being in two wars, I know one doesn’t stand around ruminating with a busted weapon, but either runs for safety, if any be near, or seizes another even an enemy’s. Shakespeare’s ‘Henry V’ may be lurking somewhere behind this piece.

5. Hope #1

The idea for this came from J.R.R. Tolkien, author of the ‘The Lord of the Rings’. I changed one of his poems enough to make it original. When does the expression of an idea by one author become an original by another? How much change is needed? The second line use of ‘what’ as opposed to ‘where’ is intentional. The next to last line can either be a question or a statement. The last line came from a fairy tale that I read as a child. Possibly it provides a dramatic end. We see what we want to see and sometimes it isn’t there, physically. As in #3 it can still be real. Reality affects what we sense which affects what we perceive which affects the real reality whatever that may be. I titled #5 to show commonality with others named the same although they were all written independently. I believe this yearning repetition may show something about me and my world view.

6. Suffering and Salvation

Agony and ache! I suffer much

Where is anything dear?

Everything I ever touch

Turns to dust or death and fear!

I have lost everything

That was ever loved by me

What next will foul fate bring?

Darkness is all I see!

Dawn from night

Shadows un-thin

Dark to light

Goodness will win

Wisdom, faith, and love exist

At last for me, they finally bring

Strength that evil cannot resist

At last! I’m free! My soul takes wing

For I had high and mighty ways that set aside

Good things or turned them into twisty lies

So you will be beat, as I was, to your knees, till pride

Goaded into submission, at last, is wise

7. Drunk Thought

Gulping hemlock

Or drinking beer

Gripping my glass

Sipping my fear

I see shadows there, hear

Words chattered aimlessly

Tune tinkling somewhere near

There’s too much falsity

Truth, clarity

Lust, love so dear

Words soft or loud

They’re still not clear

8. Annoyance

Some souls might dislike a handmade curtain

That on a wall they could resent to see

Deep annoyance to me is to be near certain

Souls, who should slay themselves, to placate me

9. Introduction Poetic

Half asleep and half awake

It’s shadowy and cool outside

Is the air still silent?

Will the dust motes dance?

So follow now more words

Concerning what I saw

I wonder if it’s true that dreams

Are to themselves a law?

So I’m alone with thoughts

In the sweet moon light

Through the window will a dream come?

Can I urge, surge my will

And mind and canny heart,

But not so hard

That the dream might fade

And receding lose forever

The vision I would have made?

10. Finishing

Oh, it’s not just my past

Or chance long gone

That saddens my heart

As I wait for the dawn

But all the brightness

That from some is fled

Lost in night by those

In whom joy was dead

Set 02 - Poems 6 through 10

These five poems shown here are the meager output that I produced while serving as an Artillery Surveyor in the Army until May 1, 1964. I did not understand the required and necessary regimentation then and fought the system just like I did in High School. As a result I stayed a P.F.C. almost my whole career as an active duty soldier in the Army. I did get a tour in Germany out of it and a lot of wondering. I remember many a session of guard duty. I did a heap of thinking while tromping in deep snow and shivering with normal boots on cold feet. I also survived those tours without frostbite. (Don’t forget that survival may be the first of all virtues.) So I guess looking back that it was not too bad. The best poem that I remember from then is ‘Dover Beach’ by Matthew Arnold. Or is it the poem that I remember best?

6. Suffering and Salvation

This was originally written in spring 1961 just before I joined the Army and was modified in 1962 when I served with the 1st Gun Battalion, 38th Field Artillery in Darmstadt, Germany. Verses 1 and 2 may be a little too dramatic. The third was inserted in June 1988 to ease the transition between despair and the joy of verse 4. It is sort of an anti-chorus to the first two verses. Can you have salvation without suffering? The unspecified suffering seems to me to be more dramatic than descriptive. In conclusion the poem seems pretentious to me with at least two obvious clichés marring it. I leave it as it was written to show an early stage of my lifelong passion for poesy.

7. Drunk Thought

The original idea came while drinking beer in a German Gasthaus with some fellow soldiers. It is pretty much original. A few changes made later were to smooth the meter. I have been notably unsuccessful in talking to women in bars. Perhaps that is why in taverns all over the world I have turned to poetry and meandering on both booze and basics. The idea I was trying to express was that sometimes out of a contradiction comes unity. It could also be regarded as a second installment for which #3 is the first. See also both #35 and #74.

8. Annoyance

This was also originally written in spring 1961 and reached its final form as dated in the Table of Contents. It shows a cruel and careless selfish streak in me. I tried to express my sincere, but irrational frustrations with some people, either because of their stupidity, arrogance, or ineptitude. Why can’t people do what I expect or what they should? In my meaner moments I feel what I wrote. Forgive me for my persistent habit of craving, or perhaps fearing, that the world exists to serve my needs and desires!

9. Introduction Poetic

This came from a dream and tries to be an evocation of a dream. It originally was intended to be