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Poems and Thoughts by Frank Maurer

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Botany

The Connecting Limb opus 20

After many decades I returned to my natal town.
I walked here and there to see what had changed.
My original house was a certain destination.
Two houses to the south on Lake Avenue,
Was a gently lower sloped area behind the old gray Daugherty home,
Where we climbed trees--mostly maples--Acer saccharum
I sought out one tree through which we often climbed,
To see if the arboreal aberration of my youth still existed.
I looked and looked upwards, but did not see the object of my visual seeking.
It was a limb with a comfortable circumference
From which we hung, marveling simultaneously:
This particular limb was connected on two ends,
Bridging itself between two trunks!
What anonymous growth act caused this strange structure?
Two trunks bound by a contiguous limb?

The fascination was more than a passing thought.
All us boys continually enjoyed
Touching that strange limb, just for a moment.

Autumnal Black Walnut opus 27

Scimitar red leaves--
Sharp and piercing!
Dripping red with the end imminent:
Soon to fall and no longer
To breathe and be creative.

My Wonderful Tree House opus 57

The huge White oak, Quercus alba, stood waiting in our yard.
It was almost begging that a little boy
Would hoist up 'prefabricated' framing
To finally form a well constructed tree house!
It was to be my hideaway after a day at school.
I sometimes even slept there overnight, much to the chagrin of my parents!
To ascend, a pulley and a rope system lifted me
With its board seat through the first stage,
Then, with railroad spikes carefully driven into the trunk, to complete the trek.
These devices ultimately protected the tree inhabitant
From any enemy marauder attempting to invade,
Yielding to the occupant, bliss, thirty feet high up in the air.

The Poppies of Elsinore, California opus 92

When I was 10, I had my own paper route.
I folded each paper, stuffed them all in the cloth paperbag,
And rode off on my bicycle.
One afternoon about 1951, I was folding the papers
And reading the headlines that day as I folded,
I saw something I would never forget--
Why, I do not know, but there it was:
"The Earth's Population is now 3 Billion People."

Of course, now within my lifetime of 71 years from that time,
The earth has reached a growing total of over 8 billion persons!
The predictions are that things may level off at 10 or 11 billion.
Goodness-------.
Now on the radio today there was a news item
That in 2019, Elsinore, California, had thousands of visitors
To view the superabundance of Spring poppies.
So many people that it clogged the town to a standstill--
No towns people could follow their normal movements!
The highway blocked, driveways blocked, shopping centers blocked!
Then, Covid for two years and no visitors.
Now 2023 arrives with another poppy bumper crop.
The town was so traumatized in 2019,
That the mayor proclaimed all peripheral roads and parks were closed--
There were so many people who came before,
That now, NO ONE could enjoy the canyon flowers by the town.

Three billion to eight billion population and everyone is penalized--
Just trying to view some flowers!
Will we be able to manage our populations
With ever more growing vital life needs such as
Meds distribution, food availability, fuel consumption?
How might we really manage with such chaos?

Our Honey Bee opus 123

Much of our agricultural system is partially built on a house of cards.
California, for instance, has over 1600 species of native bees,
All species of which are full-time pollinators.
But upon what species do we mostly rely for controlled pollination?
It is the European--yes European--Honey Bee,
Introduced long ago from the European invasion of North America.

For many years (40+), I conducted walking tours on Quail Ridge Reserve,
Now part of the Natural Reserve System of the University of California, Davis.
Whenever I came upon a native Buckeye tree,
I would ask, "Why, with all those large, phallic blossoms,
Are the blossoms' 'products' lethal to our Honey Bee?"
Few could ever correctly answer, but the answer is in its name!
European.
By introducing a non-native species to a new region of the world,
There is always the risk of potential catastrophe.
Some living thing--plant or animal-- will find a 'weakness',
And in the world of evolution, will take advantage for its own survival.
The European Honey Bee has not evolved in North America
To be able to pollinate a California Buckeye with its toxins.
Just as it has now rapidly been barraged with parasites.

It is always dangerous to introduce much of anything
To another region without risk:
Especially a creature introduced, which also lives in a huge community!
Is this phenomenon a warning that a gigantic human population
Is relying absolutely too much on cultures of another gigantic population?
As we watch the 'emergence' of virus, spreading through our hospitals and the world,
We must teach our young to truly understand the principles of evolution,
And that the phenomenon, is ever-guided through natural selection.

May We not lose Our Joshua Trees! opus 132

The Human-augmented climate crisis is taking its toll everywhere.
What seems at first just subtle shifts of the environment,
Suddenly explode in our face, manifesting pending disaster.
Such is the plight of the Joshua Tree--
That Doctor Seuss-like succulent with its comical, upright 'arms'.
They are dying from the worst drought in more than a thousand years.
Beyond that, housing developments have divided reproducing populations,
And now wildfires have increased across their desert.

Developers in the region are concerned that their activities will be encumbered.
And opposing environmental groups are concerned
About the total demise of this unique organism.
This scenario is just a small manifestation
Of the thousands of potential conflicts which will 'raise their heads',
As we earthlings proceed further into the misty unknown
Of what our exploding human population has created.

We must teach our children, the inheritors of this terrible creation,
So that they better understand and can possibly cope
And intellectually ameliorate the huge challenges they will face.
At 82, I only wish I could 'stay around'
To aid them in a problem I have helped create!
I am so sorry.

Dear Agave Plant opus 133

Oh, dear agave plant, who yields to us your wondrous juices,
Giving us joy, when imbibing your processed 'nectar',
Have we, through the negligence of our planet,
Forfeited your yield because of our criminal warming,
Careless uncontrolled habitat loss, and overharvesting?
By removing your flowering stalk early,
So as to energize the base-stalk for added sugars and production,
And, as well, affecting the Long-nosed bat, having no flowers to feed upon,
And no flowers to pollinate for your own multiplication,
Your numbers are threatened as well as those of the symbiotic nectarivore.

What on earth are we truly able to do?
Oh, of course--management and restoration!
(Perhaps also cutting back on our tequila consumption?)
Hmm, the latter is sort of a joke, I guess.

The Olive Saga opus 191

Trees, as with all earthly life require water,
Otherwise desiccation is the slow path to demise.
Trees, as with all earthly life require a comfortable mean temperature,
Otherwise desiccation and the 'bodily' functions eventually cease.
With the climate crisis, death from excessive heat is now obtaining.
More and ever more, birds, fish, mammals,
And of course the human mammal
Are migrating--shifting their earthly coordinates--
Desperately seeking out conditions they once enjoyed.

And now to feature yet another organism in this plight:
Our tree of human symbolic peace--the olive.
Humans and olive trees have coevolved for millenia--
Olives receiving greater care and genetic improvement,
And humans harvesting possibly the finest of oils.
But now, with the terrifying change in the climate earthwide,
Even our precious olive tree is severely suffering.
Olive oil production is reduced everywhere--in Spain by 50 percent.
Look around us dear people, and recognize the pending disaster we face.
By taking a weak response, humans with their fossil fuels
Are basically murdering their fellow earthly inhabitants.
My plea as a biologist is to take individual action
And always take the greater democratic action as well,
By voting in leaders who dare to understand and properly move ahead.

The Darkening Arctic opus 193

With the climate crisis, Arctic trees are migrating 130 feet north per year.
The darker trees absorb more heat than the white snow.
The habitat is warming quickly with the invading, woody marchers.

Now add Reindeer to the Arctic recipe,
With their constant nibbling; the trees are held at bay.
Nibbling may seem trivial, but with enough mastication,
The earth's rising temperature may be ever so slightly, favorably manipulated--
Nature's response of repair, countering the folly of the Naked Ape.

Trees and Turkeys opus 217

Displaying a DC Christmas tree each year from a different state,
Is far superior than pardoning an innocent turkey at Thanksgiving--
One, the death of a tree in its prime,
The other, life for a domesticated totally innocent bird,
Which is a genetic corruption of a magnificent wild creature.

(Remember the feud between Jefferson and Franklin
to name the national bird--the eagle vs the turkey!
I guess it is best we are not mass slaughtering
our national bird for human consumption,
celebrating a mythical (?) dinner with those whom
we would soon annihilate.)

Friend or Foe: The Red Cedar opus 282

Fifty years ago, the moderately scarce Red Cedar
Was often sought out for a Christmas tree on the landscape.
Now, with the Climate Crisis and drought in the Midwest,
Red Cedar are spreading and covering the landscape,
Out competing other plants in water efficiency.
This phenomenon, of course, increases fire incidents
As well as transpiring millions of gallons of much needed water.
Do we choose control burns to prevent fire?
Or to mass cut or chain drag populated treed areas--
Resulting in mass destruction to wipe out one renegade species?

Is this at all analogous to Israel's quandry
Of eliminating masses of innocent population, in order
To ferret out the fewer Hamas, who challenge Israel's existence?
Control of nature seems to often mirror the conundrums
Challenging human population's welfare.

Permafrost opus 338

Rising temperatures on our planet are no longer debatable.
Permafrost--weak frozen soil structure--is no longer 'perma'.
Northern villages built on this soil-type are sinking.
Visitors' faces were once seen through a window,
But now a viewer through that window sees knees!
Roads are undrivable, comprised now of soft mud.
Graves in cemeteries are submerged under mud and water.
Inhabitants are steadily being forced to move.
This is yet another subtle manifestation of the Climate Crisis,
Which is creating ever-more individual Eco-nomads.
Now, permanent melting is added to the Crisis list comprising
Heat, desiccation, fire, violent storms, forced animal migrations,
And impossible agricultural conditions.

Awareness opus 340

Two youthful fish were swimming together,
Deep into their normal fish-clicking language,
When an older, wiser, member of their type
Passed them by, nodding in the customary manner
And clicking out the greeting, "How is the water?"
The two nodded with respect and swam on.
Suddenly, the one stopped the other and clicked out the query--
"What the hell is water?"

When I lived for several years in Turkiye,
I learned that one of the first greetings upon meeting
Was "Su nasil?" (How is the water? -- meaning in your village.)
The basic point which I am sadly and nervously learning,
Is that our population is consumed with their own immediate needs,
With no idea how important
The surrounding world is for their very existence!
People now-a-days have no thought, for instance,
Of their companion plants--
These include grasses, flowers, shrubs and trees--
All, once vital to the indigenous people of the past.
But little do the Moderns realize of their importance to them.

Farmers and gardeners well know
How the changing rainfall and heat affect their livelihoods.
(Even planting temperature zones have been recently modified.)
Ornithologists well know of the disrupted avian food supplies world wide.
Ictheologists well know of decreasing fish populations,
Affecting both 'man and beast'.
Climatologists, like Yoda, see the changing overall picture.
To top all this, especially according to geophysicists,
Our planet may soon be subtracting a nanosecond from a future year
Because of the slower rotation of the earth,
Due to the melting north and south, and causing shifting
General equatorial planetary mass distribution.

Are we aware or even care about the fish' 'water around us'?
Or do we just continually bicker amongst ourselves
About what may turn out to be exceeding bits of trivia?

In Anticipation of a Partial Solar Eclipse opus 341

The early morning sunlight gently flooded my savannah-surrounded pond.
Many native shrubs, planted three decades ago,
Flaunt their ornamental red clusters of mature berries.
Suddenly a rapidly flying cloud crosses the area, then back again--
Rapid movement of a hundred wings,
Completely coordinating the mass of airborne bodies;
Flashes of light-toned feathers, juxtaposed with soft tan;
The flock reels and twists in difficult gyrations.
Suddenly a meeting of two California natives--bird and plant.
The swarm quickly lands, covering the ornamented shrub,
Quickly devouring the coveted energy-filled fruits.
Then just as quickly, the mass of fluttering wings
Rises up as an elevating cloud and flashes onward.

There will be in an hour or so a much anticipated solar eclipse,
But what just occurred outside my window
Is just as wondrous, manifesting yet another natural phenomenon.
May we all remember that minor 'miracles' appear often right beside us,
And that we must learn to marvel at the huge as well as the miniscule.
In my case here, it was the blending of two native beings--
One, the plant, the Toyon ornamented with nutritious fruits,
And the other, our wonderful, attractive and vivacious, Cedar Waxwing.

Two Very Sexy Geese opus 351

I have viewed this afternoon on my little farm pond,
A pair of Canada Geese swimming quietly together.
As I watched (1500 Hours), the two began
Dipping heads and imbibing in unison.
The mirrored movements became ever more rapid,
When suddenly the male gently slid over the back of the female,
Holding her head under water as he mated.
Just as quickly, he slid off but was still hooked
With his intromittent organ.
They swam awkwardly in parallel until he became unattached.
Then as if they were two human lovers, lighting up,
They, in unison, began (1515 Hours) fierce self preening manipulations.
Bills dug into plumage, over and over again,
Followed together by more head dipping,
Wing flapping, and bathing--full body.
At this moment (1525 Hours) a lone male Mallard swam from shore
Then suddenly plunged under water, surfacing twenty feet out,
Next to the pair
(Mallards are dabblers, not usually divers--most interesting behaviour.)
It started to preen and dip, mimicking the 'dance' nearby.
Astoundingly this went on for several minutes,
Then just as rapidly, the duck turned and swam to shore,
Continuing, in its seeming frenzy, to preen on ground.
The goose pair continued to mimic each other with diminishing movements.
The Mallard swam back out to mingle with the two,
Seeming to empathetically be 'joyful' in what had just occurred.
As things calmed down, I was again overwhelmed
That I had witnessed another creature, so very accurately,
Going through the same passions and behaviour
As if I had just viewed a sex film or had remembered
My own sexual behaviour with a mate of my own species!
Then, as if the phone had rung, drawing us back into the 'real' world,
The female goose began to softly cackle several times
Announcing that it was over and business awaits.
The two arose, splashingly, off the water, rose up and headed west
To the field next door, cackling exuberantly as they landed in the 'green graze',
Now ready, with contrasting behaviour, to pluck many blades of grass!

(It is noteworthy that the male Mallard through this whole episode
was totally alone--no female in sight.
An hour later his female returned--from foraging?--
and immediately the male became active around her--
swimming, preening and devoting attention to her!)

Subsiding Cities opus 355

The magic of water is that it occurs in the form of
Steam, liquid, and solid ice--three intuitively predictable forms.
The mindblower is that the solid--ice--is less dense than water and floats!
Biologically this is important for the survival of aquatic creatures in winter habitats.
Now the world's climate is changing and floating ice is liquifying,
Thus slowly creating a new world of drowning, coastal cities.
Our beloved Japanese gifted cherries near the Lincoln Memorial
Are drowning because of the backed up Tidal Basin of the Potomac River.
In South Florida, even on a fair day,
Water is backing up and flowing out of the sewer systems.

Perhaps more alarming, as I have recently learned,
Is that many coastal cities in China are literally sinking.
This is, of course, due to the neighboring--and yes--rising sea.
But, unlike many other countries, a large number of Chinese cities
Are built on softer river deltas, from under which
Groundwater has been pumped out in large quantities.
Perhaps within a hundred years, a quarter of China's coastal land
Will be below sea level, much due to subsidence.
This is an international phenomenon and, within our own turf,
Our beloved New Orleans, sharing similar geology,
Will disappear under the waves.

Neanderthals (and Early Homo sapiens) Could not Live on Mammoth Flesh Alone! opus 361

Butchered bones with stone blade marks are prominent in Prehistoric middens.
The question is, did our ancestors consume anything but meat?
Time has passed until now, when, with new research techniques,
We are learning that a large array of plant material
Has been detected and identified around the fossil dentition of the ancient ones.
Chard, wild oats, beans, wild peas, mushrooms, wild mustard,
Acorns, pistachios, and other nuts all have been ferreted out from their non-existent gum lines!
Meat, as it should be with us also, was not continually consumed,
Thus, resulting in a nice omnivorous diet, as our dentition so indicates.

California's Newest State Symbol opus 386

Several years ago I proposed and had finally passed as a state symbol,
Purple Needle Grass (Stipa pulchra), the now state perennial native grass
Which was a food staple for native people
And is now used in restoration to outcompete star thistle.
Each plant can stay around quite a while-- 150 years!

Recently California just designated the Pallid Bat as that group's representative.
A most interesting creature consuming insects and scorpions in its diet.
It also consumes cactus (plant) nectar--one of two bats in the world to do so.
The Lesser Long-nosed Bat generally sips cactus nectar
And pollinates with a delicate tongue.
Researchers were surprised to observe the Pallid Bat,
Pollinating by shoving its whole head into the flower!
These bats use echolocation to hunt on the ground
For beetles, crickets, as well as scorpions
The venom of which they are totally immune!
They also found that Pallid Bats transferred
Thirteen times as much pollen as the Lesser Long-nosed Bat.
So the more 'refined' and delicate consumption of the latter species
Was way out done by the less mannered, new discovery--the Pallid Bat.

Making Peace opus 397

There was a Swedish peace group (out of New York City?),
Which used the philosophy of attempting to gather hostile groups,
Find a common life challenge and merge them together to talk.
One such attempt was made at UC Davis in the nineties
To engage the Egyptians and the Israelis in such a situation.
With all the irrigation in California, the top soils were becoming mineralized.
UC Davis was developing plant varieties which would better survive in
such soils.
Egypt and Israel both have mineralized soils from the remains of ancient seas.
I learned that the two groups were attempting to interact.
First two separate rooms, then together but with translators,
Then as their scientists wanted faster communication results,
They just started to talk together--problem solving!
As the barriers were dissolved, field trips were created.
I was honored by receiving this mixed group of scientists,
To host a tour of my polyculture, small 37 acre farm.
To learn what had been accomplished in our nearby university was exciting
And I shall never forget the 'frosting' I added to the conclusion
Of a tremendous breakthrough between two hostile nations.

Ants as a Vector opus 482

A Pennsylvania eight-year-old boy thought he saw ants transporting
seeds to their nest.
This phenomenon is called myrmecochory and the seeds are with
Structures called elaiosomes which entice ants with nutrient-rich fats.
In the nest the ants remove the elaiosomes and leave the seed to later
germinate.
This helps seed dispersal as well as feeding the ants!
Instead of seeds, the boy, Hugo, had discovered the ants were
collecting oak galls.
(This basically rewrites 100 years of insect and plant interactive history!)
Galls are abnormal plant growths (often on oaks) induced by some wasp species.
The gall feeds and protects the larva growing from the wasp egg laid inside.
Oak galls have a structure named 'kapello' from the Greek for 'cap'.
These 'kapellos' (actually, 'kapelli') are also rich in fatty acids to
attract ants.
Similarly, the ants eat the 'kapelli', leaving the gall and larva inside intact,
Which once again gives similar shelter for the encapsulated intact larva.
Both phenomena either attract or exploit ant behavior.
The fatty acids in both structures mimic dead insects,
And ants, being scavengers, are attracted to what seems to be usual food.
This mimicry 'makes certain' these evolutionary strategies
Blur the lines between plant and animal adaptations.
Experimentation showed only similar ant behavior with the two structures.
If oak trees are lost, disruption would occur between ants, wasps, and galls.
This is another example of a vital ecological network
And that ecosystems are certainly interconnected.
We must preserve biodiversity, much of it by controlling the climate crisis.

A Catastrophe Causes Ants to Change Their Diet opus 487

When we imagine ants seeking food, we probably think first of sugar or crumbs.
But because of a catastrophe on the earth which occurred 66 million years ago,
Not only did dinosaurs disappear, but ants also were affected.
Large creatures on the earth's surface were incinerated away,
While smaller, fossorial creatures were often spared.
Of course I am talking about the crash of the meteor into our earth.
It greatly changed things on terrestrial earth, but also in the seas.
The survival of small fossorial mammals gave rise to creatures like us!
There are many stories to be told, but I shall focus on ants right now.
Most food sources for ants, including plants were burned to a crisp--
This major food for ants was, indeed, plants--so what to do?
Interestingly, masses of dead plant material became a major food for fungi
Hungry ants jumped right in and evolved to collect and eat fungus.
Thus today we behold our harvester ants common in many places.
So, a catastrophe and death knell for a major group of animals,
Created, through adaptation, a new food source for another.
The evolution of tenacious life on our planet
Continually strives to maintain the flow of protoplasm
At all costs and beyond the capacity of 'normal' thought.

The Romantic Tumbleweed opus 493

The tumbling Tumbleweed--a Western cowboy song
Which many are able to easily humm.
But sadly, and realistically, this innocent plant
Is a voracious non-native invader from Russia.
Tumbleweed seed was brought into South Dakota
In the 1870's by Russian immigrants,
Contaminating flax seed accompanying them.
Millions of dollars have been spent
To attempt to eradicate this ubiquitous weed.
The song romanticises the poetic tumbling of this floral form,
When actually with each tumble,
It is distributing yet ever-more seed.
This physical means of distribution is devastating,
Engineering yet another non-native to spread throughout the West.

Things are not always what they seem until time often passes,
And knowledge with accurate facts becomes known.

Paper Whites Responding to the Rain opus 506

The rain used to come in November,
Bringing up the Narcissus Paper Whites,
But now with a shifting climate
Manifesting a new weather,
Our blooming season commences much later.
So, now January, and the real start of the beautiful,
Fragrant blooms
Around pond 12, where they have always come first,
Reminds me of Nora, who started off
Our flower project these forty years ago.
So long, dividing bulbs, continually burst open.
And such a scent, perfuming the kitchen
And reaching out as far as able.
Sweet scent; sweet memories.

Our Attraction to Flowers opus 536

Why is it that flowers are so important for humans?
The desire to have flowers in our lives
For ceremonies--both secular and religious--, love gifts,
Or simply because one wishes to gift something
To another for no reason at all!
To think this through, what stage in a plant's life
Comes following the beautiful, scentful floral sequence?
Well, korms, bulbs, nuts, fruits are the most usual result.
An hypothesis put forward is very logical--
If the genome of a human programs memory
Where it sees flowers and takes note of their location,
The human will return to that spot later,
When the edible harvest has developed.
This behavioral trait may have been innate for survival,
As much as our 'natural' fear of snakes
May also be beneficial for survival.

Flowers for Marty opus 538

My friend of many years, Marty, was chatting with a participant about me
At a Quail Ridge Reserve ceremony honoring my work in conservation.
Along the way, Marty was asked how he had originally met me,
Marty outlined a few interesting characteristics,
Explained where he had met me with one outstanding point--
I was the only male who, during all his life,
Had actually presented to him a large bundle of flowers!
(He didn't mention that I raised thousands of narcissus and daffodils
Which I sold in several Farmers Markets,
And also spontaneously handed them out to all sexes, as I chose!)
Now the secret is out.

Bundles of Flowers opus 543

An afternoon at the dentist's office.
Had promised four bundles of my narcissus or daffodils
To the lovely ladies at reception and at the 'chair'--
Liz, Chantobel, Olivia, and the top dog, Dr Dominessey.
But what now? A Monica had slipped in, so now five.
Led into the 'chair', tooth drilled, interesting chat.
Had no time to bundle from my bucket,
Until in the aftermath and the bill paid.
In the lobby, I commenced bundling--not four, now five.
Then a patient came by--a sweet older eastern Indian.
She admired the flowers--
Probably originally came from her part of the world.
So now it was six--I had just enough.
Usha--meaning 'sunset' received a spontaneous bundle--
So, still, I had enough for five more (like the loaves and fishes).
I walked out six bundles fewer, but a heart full of multiple bundles!

April; Coping with Less Rain opus 555

I have raised thousands of narcissus and daffodils,
Nurtured only by the rain--the gamble with the elements.
Today the last of the triploids and iris were harvested.
So sad, so sobering, such realization of our changing climate.
In the 'old days' bulbs burst in November
And finalized their blossoming choreography
Sometime in April--now far short of that goal.
The few harvested ones sit in a bucket, no market to receive them;
No lovely person to take and hold them in her hand.
In eight decades, I have seen and witnessed many changes.
Now it is time for the next generation to wake up
And be ready for and realize the coming challenges.
May they use all their wit and knowledge
And common sense to meet this new reality,
Which most, being younger, will only know from historical accounts.

Puking Carbon opus 585

When I was younger,
I travelled wantonly everywhere--
And at a whim, but with good intentions;
Spreading carbon waste everywhere.

Now that I am (very) older,
I am relieved that I am
More tied to my bed and the toilet,
So that my mostly non-vital travelling
Will not add to the horrible carbon pollution
That may eventually take us all down--
Oh, that is, except for the plant world!
(Or the cockroaches,
Which have survived enumerable changes,
Cohabiting perhaps
With the horseshoe crabs and trilobites!)

An Elder's Views on Aging, Learned While Living as a Youth, With Men Mentally Crippled from War opus 633

One of my Antioch Co-op Jobs was in the Ozarks of Missouri,
Girdling old oaks to improve the forest with a subclimax of pine.
Every day I went out and 'doubled-axed' my way down each long ridge.
Winter's snows came and went, then Spring and I saw my first wild lizards!

I lodged in a boarding house which catered to several men,
Mentally crippled from WWII and Korea-- all unable to cope in society.
On weekends, I would spend some time with each,
Conversing and interacting as each was able.
I built up friendships and learned something about war's effects on them.
It made a deep impression on me as a twenty-year-old.
So much so, that in graduate school at Cornell,
While the brutal Vietnam War was raging, (1966),
I declared myself a pacifist, registering with the US government.
I was then voted in as President of the Quaker 'Young Friends' organization
And led a protest walk across the US/Canadian Peace Bridge.

Those men in Missouri, expounding their stories and plights,
Have affected me to this day, in the ways I conduct my life's activities.
I shall never forget them--I can still picture the face of each one.

True Death or Nature's 'Coverup'? opus 695

'The death of summer's life is manifested
In autumn's final magnificence.'

What I recently composed, poetically,
Sounds nice and superficially accurate,
But those trees with all their autumnal colors
Have not died--just the leaves--
The trees are resting for another season.
Perennial grasses still live beneath the soil's surface.
Although the Annuals' form which dies from crown to root--
Their broods of summer-seed offspring lie tucked in the duff,
Waiting for the catalyst of the Spring-sun's rays of warmth.  
The Conifer remains green, but with reduced life-activity,
Thus, deceptively alive, but resting, 
As its deciduous cousins openly exhibit.
So, as so explained, to the novice and uninformed,
What appears dead is just survival during an adverse time period,
As we also must rest to compose ourselves during a time of stress.