A to Z Challenge

I is for Imagining

I is for Imagining

(I know, I said brevity in

form; at least the lines

are short)

Relevant elegance

Can you imagine?

Like a poet in a tuxedo

Exchanging arctic jibes

Because the penguin

Believes the poet

Is related (and

Antarctic creatures

Always make fun

Of those from the

Warm stove top that

Is the distant North

Innovation intonation

Can you imagine?

Like a singer inventing

A new octave for

A new kind of song

Everyone might hear

No one will understand

But, known or not,

The singer sings on

Abnegation imagination

Can you fathom?

Like a magician who

Returns things to the

Top hat, until the rabbit

Says, “Too much!”

As Dorothy Sayers

Might say, if toucan

Imagine, you can, too

If two can imagine,

You can, too

http://www.a-to-zchallenge.com/

(Sayers is known for co-creating

Guinness ads in the 1930s,

making rounds again, as all

good things like good drinks do)

April 11, 2016 12

H is for History

H is for History

History is not experience

But a record of what happened

My father liked to tell stories

Of growing up along Puget

Sound, which he swam across

Part of with regularity

Well, it seems that a border

Dispute arose between folks

In Seattle (probably Olympia,

State capital and southerly

Sound-located) and those in

Vancouver and of all the parts

On both sides—

A conflict of two nations, as

It were, Canada and the USA

One day the problem was

Resolved in a game of baseball

The border was settled over

Nine-innings’ play

I don’t recall who won; maybe

I was never told—that’s not

The point—the day was saved

Not with guns but by a game,

Sporting in every way

My father’s storytelling was

History—and is—a recording

Of the time and what transpired

My telling this to you becomes

A history as well

How about making a history

For yours

http://www.a-to-zchallenge.com/

April 9, 2016 5

g is for gallop

g is for gallop

(verse at work)

galloping

I remember not directly the old radio show featuring the masked man Lone Ranger whose mask was made from the clothing of his dead brother a Texas Ranger ambushed in a gully by a criminal gang led by Butch Cavendish I think the companion for the Lone Ranger was Tonto an American Indian with many skills though doubtlessly not treated with the respect he was due I’m not sure who played the Ranger and Tonto on radio but certainly on television still before my time it was Clayton Moore and Jay Silverheels respectively and isn’t that a great name for the Native American companion well Clayton Moore tended to live the part which wasn’t all that bad because in public he reinforced a message to children that justice was good and fair a win even if the winning went hard there was more silver than simply in the name of the actor for the Ranger shot silver bullets from two guns he had wrapped around his waist silver bullets shooting straighter and true so went the lore I think and his horse was named Silver too which led to the famous expression “Hi-ho, Silver!” that the Lone Ranger called usually while his horse reared on its two hind legs and that cry was followed by “Away!” and I swear in reruns and rebroadcasts I think it was maybe Tonto who shouted “Away!” though I suppose I’m only romanticizing to give him more stature when saluting their own show and Tonto’s horse was named Scout but after all the calling set in the saddles of their chargers you know what they did they galloped away from the warm radio brocade panel or the cathode-ray lit television screen and where did they gallop but into their next adventure and should not we do the same