Welcome to My World: Poetry

By Edward Schwartz

LIVE, LOVE, LAUGH


Live, love, laugh and linger a while
Let the sun lead your life while you’re young
Ignore rainy days, thunder and lightning
When things go wrong just break out in song
Feel your heart beat and push out a smile
Now hold that pose for a little while
The world will smile with you, a happy day
You’ll find that things are going your way.

Live, love, laugh and wonder a while
How do the seasons change without our help?
The moon and the sun complement their style
Flowers and leaves, come back by themselves
The earth turns, seasons change, secret unknown
So live, love, laugh, mind the seeds you have sown.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Apr 21, 2022
• ISBN: 9781669819929

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 © 2022 by Edward Schwartz.

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: 04/21/2022

Xlibris

844-714-8691

www.Xlibris.com

839649

CONTENTS

Dedication

Preface

Chapter 1  The World Of Nature

Two White Egrets

Early Spring

Brothers

Beware

Nature’s Show

The Hawk And The Hummingbird

Rain

Nature’s Garden

Hummingbirds And Fairies

Diamonds In The Bay

Summer Peaches

The Driver

Forecast: Snow

Evanescense

Wind Trails

Snowscape

The Ice Is Not Safe

Hot Chocolate Or Beer

Nature Always

Chapter 2  The World Of Love

Two Women I Have Loved

What I Didn’t Know

What Greater Gift

Our Love Story

Great-Grandkids Are Free

My Favorite Poem

Vows

A Second Life

Live, Love, Laugh

The Passion Of Old Age

Reverie

Half Past Eighty

New Life Begins

A Red Velvet Swing

Something Simple

The Bard’s Valentine

The Language Of Love

Chapter 3  The World Inside Us

Confidence

A Crack In The Mirror

A Man Must Be A Man

Heaven Or Not

Ode To Olga

On Seeing Death

As A Driven Leaf

A Young Man’s Loss

Life That We Crave

The Mantle Of Age

Nap Time

The End And Beginning

Fate Is The Hunter

Addressee, Unknown

Eternity

Chapter 4  The World Around Us

Burn The Books

The Censor

Death By Law

Timeless

Compromise

Scars

Wrong Again

Speck

The Town With No Name

Where There’s Smoke, There’s Fire

Ashes Of Roses

Simple Things

A Lesson

Wooden Ships And Iron Men

The Holy Land

Chapter 5  The World Of Knights

Two Roses Across The Moon

The Son Of A Knight

A Knight In Shining Armor

Once Upon A Time …..

That Is The Point

Who Would Be King

Chapter 6  The Rest Of My World

Grumpy Old Man

Waiting

A Frost

What Is Poetry

Not Football! On Nickelodeon

Super Bowl (Already)

Not My Music

No Music

An Unexpected Conversation

Selling The House

Are You Listening

I Leave You With These Thoughts …

About The Author

DEDICATION

To my wife and partner, Mary Wezeman, for all her efforts to make this book a success. She has helped with editing, changing words and using the computer which is not my forte.

Thanks to my grandchildren Menachem, Shaindel and Yossi, their spouses, and great-grandchildren Mendel, Yakov and Yakov.

Thanks also to my great friends at Lake Barrington Shores for buying, reading and commenting on my poetry. And also to my old friend Bert Lucarelli, oboe master from New York.

Ed Schwartz, 2022

PREFACE

As a still and mostly unknown poet, I have written five books of poetry. Tapestry and Tapestry Two were my first two written over many years, when I did not yet know I was a poet. Published in 2017, at the age of 80, they were so successful that I considered another career in carpet sales. Actually, I just retired from that.

At any rate, they brought in a few dollars. Few is the word. I keep receiving checks for $3.01 and once for $11.30. Since I was doing so well, I stopped writing.

But then Joan, my wife of sixty-one years, passed away and I wrote Tattered Tapestry which told of my years of caretaking and the terrible loss. That was book number three.

In 2020 I started going out with an old friend whom both my wife and I had known. I was eighty-four and Mary was eighty-five; and we fell in love. I don’t know if I can say in words what it has meant to me to have known and loved this lady; but I am sure it saved both our lives from years of being unhappy and alone.

To tell our story, I wrote another book with Mary entitled Are We Too Old to Hold Hands? As the title implies, we were not, and so a new best seller appeared. Surprisingly, I have not received my first check yet.

I certainly did not write my poetry for the money. However, it would not hurt to receive a little. I wrote my poems and thoughts for my children, grandchildren and those three little greats running around my feet.

I thought I was done writing but the poems keep coming.

If you are reading this introduction to book #5, Welcome to My World, we must have passed the censors and the book is on the shelves of bookstores everywhere.

Thank you for taking the time to read my poetry. I hope you enjoy the reading, and perhaps may buy a book or two. You might tweak those royalties up to $19.36.

Ed

CHAPTER ONE

THE WORLD OF NATURE

Everything we do involves nature, from break of dawn till darkest night.

Most of us seldom see nature except in early spring when leaves pop out or in late fall when those leaves change