Poetry
Ted's Haiku
Winner of the Handy Andy Award for best limerick in the
2025 Annual Poetry Society of Virginia (PSV) Contest.
They demanded a haiku from Ted.
He submitted a limerick instead.
They demanded a change
Which was beyond his range,
And pronounced the entire contest dead!
The Mighty Eighth
Winner of the third prize in the 2025 Writers' Guild of Virginia Stokes Award Poetry Contest.
Young they were when Hitler ruled.
They swore their oaths and then were schooled
While Europe in Adolph’s darkness lay,
To bomb the Reich by light of day.
They flew from England to I.P. to A.P. and back.
They flew through storms of fighters and flak.
Fewer returned, but replacements came,
And earned victory, laurels, honor and fame.
Now “The Mighty Eighth” museum in Savannah
Is a storehouse of long past Air Force arcana.
But in Germany the memory is by more than letter
Where a day of clear sky is still called Bomber Wetter.
So give a spare thought when you have time one day
To the lads then flying, now in graves where they lay,
Many side by side in peace, in eternal repose,
After saving our world by the battle they chose.
Long Time Standing
This is a poem written in 2017 to accompany my wife Sharon’s oil on canvas painting “Long Time Standing.”
Branches and bark honorably lost
In combat with lightning and wind,
And mostly time, which always wins.
Leaves are gone but roots remain
To hold him upright and alone,
The landmark where two roads meet.