Edges of the Norm

By Peter Rahlson

The poems in this volume are eclectic in scope. In tone, they span from serious to silly.

We all need a little levity in our lives. The poems reflect a range of thoughts, feelings, personal and professional experiences, events, images, reflections, and challenges I have had in my lifetime. They all speak for themselves (nothing more nothing less).

As a reader, you bring your own personality to each poem. I invite you to open this book; thumb through it; try a few.

"Knowing is not enough, we must apply. Willing is not enough, we must do."

-- Bruce Lee

"Turn your face to the sun, and the shadows fall behind you."

-- Maori proverb

• Language: English
• Publisher: Fulton Books, Inc.
• Release date: Jan 2, 2024
• ISBN: 9798887312651

Book preview

Table of Contents

Title

Copyright

Acknowledgement

Three Images

Twenty-First-Century Relationships

Adjectives

American Heartthrob With a Potential Job

Aware

Bare Feet, Shoed Feet

Becoming

Believe

Biochemistry

Blame

Bullshit

Business

Butterfly

Cats

Challenge

Conclusion

Debonair

Dilemma

Disconnect

Early Evening

Easter Bunny

Egg

Encode

Enemy

Ether

Evendream

Exposed

Expression

Fascist Father Figure

Figuratively Fluid

Fools

Gathering

Gluttony

Gravestone Epitaph

Happiness List

Holocaust

Hurry

I Finished Her Poem

In Between

Lamppost

Lap

Leaves

Left Behind

Liberation?

Look

Love You

Marriage Blessing

Mayfly

McGlashan's Porch

Mirrors

Cantankerous Morning Constitutional

News

Not Quite There

Oblong

Old

One Act Play

Outdoor Recreation

Poem Cycle

Point

Possibility

Reconcile

Reframe

Remembrance

Reminders and Remainders

Research

Reverie

Rhymin' Single Syllable O

Room Shadows

Runnin'

Salvation

Scholarship

Scourge

Shadow

Sitting, Staring

Social Media

Solutions

Sotto Voce

Sunnin' at the Poo'

Survey

Taken

Tears

The Lint Pickers

Three Rhyming Poems

Top

Turn

Victim?

White Horse

Window

Wish

Worthy

About the Author

cover.jpg

Edges of the Norm

Peter Rahlson

Copyright © 2023 Peter Rahlson

All rights reserved

First Edition

Fulton Books

Meadville, PA

Published by Fulton Books 2023

ISBN 979-8-88731-264-4 (paperback)

ISBN 979-8-88731-265-1 (digital)

Printed in the United States of America

To

ML

"Be yourself;

Everyone else

Is already taken."

Oscar Wilde

"You only live once,

But if you do it right,

Once is enough."

Mae West

"No matter how

Busy you may

Think you are;

You must find time

For reading, or

Surrender yourself

To self-chosen

Ignorance."

Confucius

"It's the suppression

Of the word

That gives it the power,

The violence,

The viciousness."

Lenny Bruce

Acknowledgement

I want to thank my family and close friends for their encouragement and never-ending support.

More specifically, I want to thank Dr. Heidi Laird for her insights and analysis of several poems. Clarity is a blessing. Ms. Gail DiMaggio and I discussed the creative process in general and the writing process more specifically. These times were discussions deliciously spent.

Lauren and Lukas Rahlson offered good ideas that worked. Linda Gilbert, Christine Thorsrud, and Susan Zucker expressed positive support after reading my poems. Alan McGlashan made it clear to me (in no uncertain terms) that he wanted a published copy. His enthusiasm was contagious.

I would like to thank Fulton Books, and specifically, Liz Acel, for helping with the publication of this book of poems. Keeping the process simple was, for me, a blessing.

Mary Lynne has been my closest confidant for forty-two years (so far, so good). For all my endeavors, from the sublime to the ridiculous, you have kept your eyes wide open. Ya, I know. Thank you for all of it. Patience is a virtue.

Three Images

White wings spread by discontented winds

Shroud all in silence.

Teasing, mocking,

Lies blank, cold deep

For pictures, footprints.

Individuality lost.

Lazy snakes weave in delicate rhythms'

Graceful gray-blue curves, silent calculus lines

Undulate, dissipate

As simplicity should.

Leprechauns paint fantasy when

Twilight plays on mossy glen,

Quiet green shrouds shades of love,

As darkness dims the light above.

Delicate pastels and hues entwine,

Make this wild spot our private shrine,

We lie still.

Feel light breath caress

As contented trees

Timid flowers recess.

At peace within, without…we undress.

Twenty-First-Century Relationships

How we interface

With others

Just smothers

Us.

E-mail: personal without face-to-face, evidence in court, beware.

Twitter: spread sanitary misinformation.

Craig's list: everything you wanted but didn't know where to find it, be careful.

Facebook: friends in absentia, what's up without conversation?

Facetime: can see and hear, just can't touch.

Texting: can tell you everything without emotion getting in the way, particularly for ending relationships.

Dating sites: who I am, is it true?

Video games: no social dexterity required.

Bullying: anyone who feels emboldened, enabled by those who don't draw a line in the sand.

Threatening: negative manipulation by fear for control, reinforced by previous successes.

Harassing: keeps others looking over their shoulders, annoyance for the sake of social recognition.

Proselytizing: everyone needs to be saved, God knows.

Divorce: when intimacy, talking, listening, understanding, support, and compromise don't happen anymore. I love you becomes cliché.

Lying: not the truth while keeping a straight face, ethical relativism.

Suing: too much licentious, larcenous litigation, lots of loot here.

Blaming: find someone else at fault, sit back feel self-righteous.

Negotiating: one-upmanship with finesse.

Hostages: every so often bargaining chips are needed.

Interviewing: find out what you think, but not really care that much.

Victims: those who get pissed on by nature, bad decisions, the morally bankrupt.

Predators: can only feel physical and emotional release by preying on the weaker.

Sexual assault: the ultimate evil in power and control.

Cheating: you hurt yourself because you can't do what others thought you could.

Affairs: an exercise in rationalization and deception which gets worse and worse.

Prostitution: a business transaction, non-taxable income.

Killing: we haven't evolved much as a species yet to manage aggression, hate, jealousy.

Polarizing: good for the Arctic bears, not for functional government.

Responsibility: what's that?

Conspiracies: non-thinkers, non-skeptics led down the garden path. Stuck in stupidity.

Intolerance: when it is clear that what I think is better than what you think.

Bigotry: when intolerance makes you impossible to be around.

Racism: when bigotry focuses on capabilities based on color.

Antisemitism: your own failures projected as interference by Jews.

Profiling: harassment based on phenotype, stereotype, the ultimate insult.

Porn: takes