“I Do ...” The Poem of Us

         The Early Years

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Going to Tony and Chris Crocker Janueski’s wedding reception

 

 

 

 

 

So Happy Together ...
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Cheap beer, cheap wine, good whisky sometimes, and great friends …

 

Stephen, Kathy, and GHS English teachers Karen Simmons and Mike Seltenright in the front row, plus band teacher John Brannim just above Kathy, with his performing band.


 

 

 

 

 

Still young here,

but somehow a lot older …   

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

As the clock begins

to tick a little faster …
 

 

 

 

 

  

 

 

 

And faster yet,
every year

While Young Love Begins to Gray ...


 

(below) A frame from a special video we made for a special person who turned 50 in 1998 …

Don’t even try to guess

what else was in

that video

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Later the same year, we celebrated our 25^th Anniversary in Indiana …

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And in Kathy’s home

town of Greencastle, PA

 

 

 

December 31, 1999: Even the Millennium has been aging …


But isn’t each expired day the portal to a new dawn?

 

 

 

Yes! And three months later, my young wife of near-27 years turned 50

Yet Youth Flourishes ...

 

 

One son, one daughter in law, and five grandchildren by 2010 …
 

The year we moved back to our Indiana home, for good

Finally, three years later, both in our sixties, married now forty years, and with a sixth grandchild, we pause to remember the past ...

Best Woman Kathy’s sister, Cheryl Koons Winger; Best Man, James Oliver Burns

And to know the present, 

 Welcome the future, 

 And especially I pause to say:

 

 

Thank you Kathy,  

for  

the Poem of Us 

that took forty years to write

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Stephen Rowe welcomes correspondence of all sort at StephenRowe.OriGraphics@yahoo.com

(watch for the period between Rowe and OriGraphics)






 

The Ecstasy of Gnats

Homo sapiens (once known as “Man,” but today “Human” sounds better because it is does not indicate sex (which we now call “gender” because it sounds less offensive than sex)) is surely the most narcissistic creature inhabiting the planet, if not the Universe.

You might recall that Narcissus drowned in a pool of water while admiring his reflected image. Today we seek and/or create our image daily, in mirrors, photographs, and in Facebook.

Topping all that, and topping whatever else might possibly happen before our extinction, we have created God in our image by writing that God created Man in his … Ingenious!

As for the rest of creation (excepting our personal pets, and the wild animals we almost never see because they are wild), we have but the slightest regard. Not human, not worth our gaze. Man has eyes but for himself. 

A gnat swarm, called a 'lek' by biologists

 

A case in point: Do you love seeing gnats?

Ha! I knew you did not!

Now I have to admit that individual gnats are not attractive to my manly (or human) sensibilities. But how beautiful is a gnat swarm? If you only knew!

Male gnats swarm in the sunlight because it makes them more visible to females, who then join the swarm to mate! No dim pickup bars, internet dating sites, pornography, or loneliness – these are human afflictions ... Gnats are open and bold! 

Can you imagine

the erotic pitch!

A gyrating whorl of thousands upon thousands,

Countless healthy young flying naked bodies,

Shimmering golden in the sun,

Blazing with lust,

Rapturous

Ecstasy!

 

Stephen Rowe welcomes correspondence of all sort at StephenRowe.OriGraphics@yahoo.com

(watch for the period between Rowe and OriGraphics)

Thor Speaks

 

 

Men, people … 

So easily amused, 

Thousands herd to see fireworks, 

Puny and trivial, 

Not one hundredth a percent 

My Power 

Which the Solitary behold in Awe!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Stephen Rowe welcomes correspondence of all sort at StephenRowe.OriGraphics@yahoo.com

(watch for the period between Rowe and OriGraphics)

Tell me of your Joy (the ultimate version)

 

 

We are all mortal, born to die

 

 

It is natural and right 

 

 

Not a loss, just a passing 

 

 

So take time to notice the life around you – plants, creatures...

 

 

The life that you yourself will ultimately become...

Stephen Rowe welcomes correspondence of all sort at StephenRowe.OriGraphics@yahoo.com(watch for the period between Rowe and OriGraphics), and can be found be found on Facebook by typing ArtMissionary (all one word) into its “Search for people” form.

People Love Not Dandelions Because They Are Free

Stephen Rowe welcomes correspondence of all sort at StephenRowe.OriGraphics@yahoo.com

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The Apple Tree Cave in Blossom

 

 

 

 

These are May 9^th apple tree blossoms from a big circle of such trees I planted in 1997, creating a spacious interior where I often meditate.

Have you ever seen a “natural” apple tree? There is a good chance you have not. Almost all apple trees are severely pruned, either to increase yield, or to mimic an artificial standard of horticultural beauty. For some reason, most people want the lower several feet around the trunk to be naked, completely clear of branches and leaves.

 

 

How much nicer to sit within what I call the apple tree cave, and look out between the branches, or from a relatively small clearing.

 

 

I make a point of letting all my trees grow in their natural tendencies.

Yes, the apple tree cave brings me pleasure … but can you imagine the joy of surely a hundred birds in the course of a day, of other animals, and most of all the thousands if not millions more worms and insects that feed on and live in its fruit, leaves, and bark in the course of a season!

 

Surely you know these lowly creatures have great joy?  It is obvious they can experience terror, and if you think about it, isn’t their joy obvious as well?

·         They eat the fresh, organic food they were “meant” to eat.

·         They have wanton sex, free of social baggage and other hang-ups. Surely you don’t imagine that sex is pleasurable for you but not them? We all come from nature, and I am certain worm and insect sex is pure rapture and ecstasy, much more than is ours, on average.

·         They act and live completely in accordance with their primal nature, and thus glory in the live-long day; while so many of us live in wage slavery, dream of vacations, anticipate weekends, catch a couple hours of TV, and text and and surf the internet on a telephone in order to feel “connected.”

Ah, to live in an apple tree cave rather than the spiritual catacombs that progress and technology have created!

But I digress … May we all digress some, every single day! And may we all look - that is really look at - at least one tree every day as well?

 

Early spring foliage, the apple tree cave walls will grow luxurious with the season.

 

 

 

 

Note: This photo of me sipping tea, used in the previous blog post If Time isMoney …, was taken inside the apple tree cave last May.

 

 

Stephen Rowe welcomes correspondence of all sort at StephenRowe.OriGraphics@yahoo.com

(watch for the period between Rowe and OriGraphics)

If Time is Money ...

Stephen Rowe welcomes correspondence of all sort at StephenRowe.OriGraphics@yahoo.com

(watch for the period between Rowe and OriGraphics)