“Studying a Shoe” and Other Osher Summer Workshop Poems

The Osher Institute’s (at the University of Richmond) first summer Poetry Appreciation Workshops was attended by a small group of between 6 and 8 students, including some who had not written much or any poetry before. After studying several poetic devices and several inspiring classic poets and modern poets ( see previous posts on this forum), students were invited to write their own poems.

One such poem, which caught everyone’s interest, was by Brad Davenport, one of our three retired lawyers. While visiting Beaufort, South Carolina, he saw a picture of an Old Shoe in The  June 13-26 Low Country Weekly Newspaper. “The old shoe,” he and the newspaper reported, “was found beneath the bedroom floorboards of the historic Tidalholm Plantation during its recent renovation.” Brad later sent me an article showing the house was built in 1853, had survived the Civil War, and was featured in the Big Chill Movie. It recently sold for $1.76 Million dollars-presumably with the shoe included  Most people would likely pass by this item with some curiosity, but since our Osher Poetry Appreciation Workshop emphasized viewing everyday occurrences in different ways,  However, Brad wrote a poem about it ( see below) entitled, “Studying a Shoe.”  He also wrote a “Hymn to Mokim,” which he said is about a female church Rector.

Studying a Shoe on a Hot Summer Day, by Brad Davenport. June 26, 2018

Whose shoes these are, I do not know

He lived in the Country Low, though.

Do you think they pinched his big toe?

If so, did they get red and glow?

On them did blisters grow and make his brow furrow?

Did the wearer plow a row with a hoe while his corn he did sow?

Did he return home and say me is woe?

While he swung in his swing to and fro and watched his son the grass mow

And his wife his overalls sew

In the springtime when ran the shad roe and birthed were the fawns .by the doe.

What say you, Bro?

Was that the status quo?

Hymn to MOKIM by Brad Davenport

There once was a lass from Bethlehem

She was trim and slim but definitely not dim or prim

She lived life to the brim of the rim

And sported a tattoo on her limb

And could tell her flock to sink, or swim.

She was a priestess with the mostest and didn’t preach on a whim.

She sang the praises of Him

And sometimes orated on THE GREAT I’M

Or used a synonym

And, being thoroughly modern, didn’t shrink from using a meme

As she sometimes slunk off with Audrey and Owen to the jungle gym.

She’d earned a lofty degree she felt entitled to use in her title, and not on a whim.

Would it be “Rev Kim”?

Or “Reinholz” (which doesn’t make a good rhyme)?

A femme wanted to call her  “Mother Kim”

But she knew that sounded like she might be on Blim

Or a nun in Brothers Grimm, habited in a long hem.

So she waffled twixt her yang and her yim

And landed on an elegant pseudonym

Which is why we now have this oh-so-clever hymn

To the Exalted the REVEREND MOKIM.

 

Studying alliteration and memories of teaching high school English inspired Ed Lynch to write “Alliteration” and “Epitaths.”

Alliteration  by Ed Lynch (Help from Bryan White):

Baffled Bryan, belied and behooved

Randy, roundabout, reckless and crude

Young, yea-saying and also yearning

A jubilant jester—a process learning

Nefarious, nebulous, nauseated and nimble

Waggish, wakeful, wanton, and whimsical

Humorous, horrible and hardly haughty

Ill-tempered, ignoble, and needlessly naughty

Tasteful and tawdry, torpid and talkative

Earnest and elementary and also evocative.

 

Epitaphs – RAP “Grammar by Ed Lynch

Born – June 25, 1949

Departed – Distant Future

1. Lynch was the master rapper of good grammar—

He rapped so hard to out- hammer “Hammer!”

After school, he saw the doc to check out a spot.

Going out of the office, poor “Grammar” got shot!

Ol’ doc called up 911 and dashed fast for an ambulance.

The pretty nurse cried, “Oh, no!” When his

Eyes caught her glance.

“From his looks alone,” she sighed, “he would’ve been a star—

Au revoir,” she began to stammer, “my

“Grammar,” Au Revoir!”

 

Tom Murphy, another one of our retired lawyers, recited and explained what inspired him to write  “I am I am.”

I am I am by Tom Murphy – June 2018

I am the Image of an Everlasting God

Created in Love, by love, for love.

Shaped by earth-bound forces,

My ego denies its rightful place,

Squandering an inheritance for a mess of pottage,

Declining the love for which I was made.

Denying the love of which I am made.

But the bonds of love adhere

Never shall they disappear.

Never failing love remains

God and man are never twain.

 

Murray Ellison, the instructor who only occasionally writes poetry, wrote one about “Waiting in O Hair Airport Sports Bar,” another on his blueberry picking experiences, and one about his cat, Mia, upon remembering her first visit, six years ago to the vets.  “This Cat” was inspired by some shaped poems of e.e. cummings, who we covered in this class.

Waiting in Chicago’s O Hair Airport Sports Bar by Murray Ellison – July 2018

Chicago Deep Dish Pizza
Guillotine
The Stranger by Albert Camus
Moral Decisions
Pole Vault
Corner Kick
Header
Ricochet
Red Card Penalty Kick
Decisive Victory
Game Over
France
Uruguay
Yellow Card
Stoppage Time
3-hour layover
Gate check bag
World Cup Victory
Gooaalll!!!!
Nazomi Project in Japan
2 Koreas
Nuclear Tension
My Summer Haircut

 

Blueberries in Hand by Murray Ellison 6/30/2018

 

If I may say,

I didn’t pick ‘dem blueberries today,

on the same routes as my ‘ole friend.

Though I was Assured, there’d  be

Buckets full of fruits,

My next time with Him,

Will be at the Berry End.

Instead,

I picked the thorniest path,

Without much care.

With two black snakes on the wood,

On the hottest day of the year,

One thing is very clear:

All fruits aren’t that good,

When ripened by a tear.

Though my arms were scratched and blood-red,

I truly felt no fear—

At least I wasn’t dead!

In Jamaica, they say,

“No Problem, Mahn.”

Dey’ never say, “I can’t.”

Neider’ do dey’ say, “I can.”

But my time in the woods was good.

With two baskets full in hand,

I picked dem’ damn blueberries

‘Till I could near even stand.

 

This Cat by Murray Ellison by Murray Ellison July 2018

 

 

This cat she wakes with some royalty

This cat scratches with much grace

This cat’s the Carnival of Animals….

This cat she watches my face

This cat, she glides up the stairs—

This cat makes hardly a sound

This cat she sits on High Chairs

This cat can not be found

This cat’s the Queen of all Reveries

This cat’s like some Shakespeare Clown

And so you can see,

When she climbed up a Tree….

It turned my whole Face to a

O

R              W

F                       N

T’was six years from today

When I heard that Vet Say:

We’ve brought your dam cat

d

       o

              w

                      n,

to the ground.

 

 

Janice Jones had never written a poem before, and said she wasn’t going to write one, But, she surprised us with a beauty, which rocked the whole class!

 

Before he Bought a Boat by Janice Jones – July 2018

 

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