Sonnets by Maynard Lee Sisler (06/24/09)
Fathers
Fathers know where to locate a band-aid Whenever puppy-love may hit the skids. They also know how to handle their kids When their best efforts are not making the grade They know how to win -- and suffer their losses...

June's Moons and Gershwin Tunes (06/17/09)
June comes softly and gently, bringing a sense of style and grace, as if she would like to be your fair lady. She reigns over her domain from a high-sky sun at its zenith come solstice. Her short nights are brought to an abrupt end by raucous dawns welcoming the day sounds to us participants in the celebration of summer at last. Her rains are gentle...

Graduates -- been there, done that (06/11/09)
During the pleasant springtime of the last year of peace, 1939, this adolescent was graduated from Shepherdstown, W.Va., High School. (It was protocol for all boys under 16 to wear knickers, but since my own 16th was just a couple of months away, my father allowed me to wear long pants. ...

Don't overfill a full plate (06/03/09)
Dick Cheney has not emerged from government service as the most popular man in the world. He has filled many jobs, as congressman from Wyoming, Chief of Staff under Gerald Ford, then later he was Secretary of Defense under the first President Bush, and vice president under the most recent George Bush...

Call her blessed (05/07/09)
She lived her long and happy life as the prototypical southern lady. Her stance and carriage were proud and gentle --- she got along with everyone, whatever their calling or station in life. She inherited her father's easy way with people; reared in the tradition of the Old South, she believed with all her heart in The Lost Cause. ...

Flu scares and history (04/30/09)
Tradition has it that the British forces occupying early America purposely gave blankets taken from smallpox victims who had died to the Indian tribes which had been at war with them. The poor Indians were wiped out because they had no immunity to the virus...

Life and death (04/22/09)
I wrote two poems this week, dealing with the emotions associated with life and death. The first one displays the stages that describe the grief we all feel at the loss of a loved one. (The writer's beloved wife of 32 years died suddenly just under three months ago.) A major part of dealing with such a tremendous loss is recognizing these emotions to let one prevent the deterioration of unresolved grieving as a way of everyday living.. ...

Deadline (04/16/09)
It has been truly said the only certainties in this life are death and taxes. The big red date seems to project itself form the plane calendar surface and others have seen it as an on-off switch reminding us that we must file and pay up or run into a peck of problems...

Early morning visit (04/08/09)
Arimathea's tomb caught the dawning sun's early rays that morning as the two women hastened to visit the place where they had laid their Lord, who had been executed by crucifixion three days earlier. ...

Transition (03/25/09)
Ravaged trees wear their scarred and broken limbs as forlorn witnesses to the recent ice storm, while yet thrusting their proud trunks to the sky. On some of these injured, stalwarts are the first hints of blossoms and the rest of the springtime paraphernalia...

Irish eyes are smiling (03/18/09)
The Irish part of my soul positively soared on listening to the great tenor, the late Frank Patterson, at this time of St. Patrick's Day. From his heavenly voice came the sung legends directly from the Auld Sod, bringing the sweetest memories of a grandfather who could send one's emotions to the level of the very celestial address of the great patron saint of Ireland, Patrick himself...

Both sides now (03/11/09)
Judy Collins in the Sixties sang about her quest of finding out about clouds, love and life, concluding that, after having seen both sides now, it was only the illusion that made any lasting impression...

The Dark Ages (02/18/09)
This writer was privileged to serve as medical officer at the U.S. Naval Academy many years ago. Did those creatures ever teach me! They spoke with their own dialect, observed their strict code of truth and honesty, and most of them grew into the fine officer corps that makes our Navy the strongest anywhere...

Full plate and empty pockets (01/22/09)
The inaugural pageantry and the soaring rhetoric of the inaugural address are now history. We have emerged, along with our new president, from a smooth transition period marked by unusual wisdom in selecting a team...

Hail and farewell (01/15/09)
Off into the mists of history will shortly pass the administration and its memorable figures. To them we bid a most hearty farewell, glad they will no longer bring chaos to a country which has been sorely used by them and their shenanigans. ...

A two-faced New Year (01/07/09)
Last week we were filling the quiet, holy night with songs of rejoicing at the birthday of the Prince of Peace. Just at the turn of New Year, gruesome, hateful war brought its grisly images of dying and wounded men, women and children, the usual casualties. ...

Bodacious Hope (12/31/08)
We were sure, back in the summer of 2004, that we had witnessed something America had been missing for so many long years. We made a rash prediction to our skeptical spouse that we would be seeing a lot of this young man and we wouldn't be surprised if he became president some day soon. ...

Christmas Sonnets for 2008 (12/24/08)
Bethlehem Sky By Maynard Lee Sisler The miracle of virgin birth that day Has given humankind the hope we need For life lived well, with joy along the way And purpose found so well in word and deed. The newborn babe saw the Bethlehem sky...

The Bush Legacy (12/11/08)
As much as he can do so during his time as lame duck, the president seems to be making the most of his attenuated term to justify the events of all the years he served. In so doing, he has demonstrated a tendency to revise the actual events he brought into play. ...

The way to peace (12/04/08)
True penitence cannot exist with pride, and humility is the hallmark of the person at peace. In the wisdom of the early Christian church, the celebration of the Nativity of our Lord was a feast day of the greatest importance. ...

The Dow and the Pilgrims (11/27/08)
"Got no checkbooks, got no banks. Still, I'd like to express my thanks -- I've got the sun in the morning and the moon at night. And with the sun in the morning and the moon in the evening, I'm All right!"...

Awkward interval (11/20/08)
President-elect Obama has absolutely no constitutional power until his inauguration eight weeks hence. The lame-duck president occupies a similarly awkward position in that, although he can execute presidential authority right up to Jan. ...

New Broom (11/12/08)
It is over, at last, and we have a new Chief Executive getting settled into his formidable job. We are trusting that he will select an administration attuned to the realities of the country and the world which will help us get well again as Americans...

Hail to the Chief (11/06/08)
Going to press on Election Day relieves the columnist of the temptation to prognosticate. The race has been unduly long, with many twists, turns, gobbledygook and just plain bull-feathers as stock daily fare from stumps that have circled the entire fifty states. ...

Down to the wire (10/30/08)
As we go to press, we'll have less than a week before we can select our leaders in government for the next years. (Doesn't it seem an eternity since the long, long campaign trail started in the mists of early last year?) We met some stellar candidates, and there have been others who would not fit any bill we could imagine, including dog-catcher. ...

Finish line dead ahead (10/23/08)
In politics, especially at election time, a fortnight can be an eternity -- or a blink of the eye -- depending upon how far up or down the polls are going. We have certainly become somewhat less than enchanted when we hear again and again from the four major players in this one. ...

No bottom? (10/15/08)
Before the invention of the fathometer, when a ship's captain or pilot needed to find out how deep the channel was for safe navigation, he would call for sounding, using a weighted line marked with the divisions of a fathom - six feet in landlubber terms...

A time for cheerleading (10/08/08)
Sarah Palin is a smart woman and a "quick study." She responded to the questions posed to her and Senator Joe Biden with far too many worn-out phrases used by John McCain in his campaign-trail canned goods. ...

The debate (10/01/08)
The weeks leading up to the presidential debate in Oxford, Miss., were certainly filled with drama and suspense. Right up to curtain time, we wondered if Senator McCain would even show up, after what appeared to be an act of political chicanery of postponing or canceling of the event by McCain "for the country's sake." Apparently, the candidate had overvalued his own influence in solving the financial crisis which had beset us as a nation of worried people. ...

The Love of Money (09/24/08)
Lines from an old song seem appropriate: "Had we thought a bit Of the end of it When we started painting the town, We'd have been aware That our love affair Was too hot not to cool down." We have been hit in the solar plexus by the greatest crisis to afflict our basic economy in decades. ...

Ebb and flow (09/18/08)
"Figures don't lie, but liars figure…." Goes the old proverb, doubtless invented by a person gifted in translating statistics. Every hour of every day during this election cycle, we are treated by the latest poll, with spin added depending upon one's inclination or prejudice. ...

Home stretch (09/10/08)
The two major parties have concluded their respective conventions. There was the usual hyperbole, bloviating, some memorable soaring oratory and some halting speeches from both factions of our political scene. ...

In praise of a work ethic (09/03/08)
The American people can be defined, in part, by their willingness to get and keep a job. We measure one's worth by his ability to take care of his family on a regular and predictable basis, with sustained job security. ...

One hand clapping (08/28/08)
This week, the Democratic convention erupts in Denver, and to round out a fortnight of fun and chicanery, the Republicans start theirs a week later in St. Paul. When these affairs bring to an end their remainder of the summer of politics, the real campaign for the presidency will shift into first gear. ...

Wars and Rumors (08/20/08)
God looked at His newest creation and called it "very good." He had made Adam in His own image and after His likeness, and it was with a patriarch's blessing that -- after He created the lady Eve for a life-companion -- He gave them the planet Earth with the admonition to be fruitful and multiply. ...

Time Out (08/13/08)
This is the time of year when your ageing observer adjusts his spectacles, tunes up the old hearing aids, and generally sits back on tiring haunches to take a week off, just to play. We do this to commemorate the anniversary when a young woman brought forth her fifth son -- on the date of this publication, eighty-five years ago. ...

A change of life? (08/07/08)
Poor old America! We are battered by incoming reports of a decline in just about everything - the collapse of the housing market and the fall of old-and-steady banking institutions have combined with the outrageous manipulation of the oil market to bring gloom to household level...

American Strength (07/31/08)
Given the job-description, there is very little Americans, organized or singly, cannot perform. The generation that won the good fight in World War II has paid testimony to the "can-do" history of striving against the odds against them, wherever on the globe they fought. ...

Under the Dog Star (07/23/08)
A celestial phenomenon that occurs at about the time of midsummer is the prominence of Sirius, the Dog Star. The so-called 'dog days" bring practically undiluted misery of heat, humidity, and a sense of lassitude, verging on plumb laziness. ...

End of the tunnel? (07/17/08)
It may well be the case that the long-lamented Iraq War will wind down far sooner than its instigators reckoned. We have been informed violence has abated in Baghdad to the point ordinary people can be abroad in the city until late in the evenings now. ...

A time for optimism (07/10/08)
Now that politicians are filling our senses with their visions of gloom and despair on a marathon basis, we wonder where the real America lives and how its bare-bones citizenry is coping with a world gone askew. ...

Hot week in Philadelphia (07/02/08)
When my high school history teacher taught us about our early origins, she begged us to attempt our own adoption of the Founding Fathers' mind set in trying to understand why they acted as they did. Why did they select young Jefferson to write the incriminating document, with the ageing mentors Adams and Franklin to guide him? The Continental Congress, which had adopted the resolution to secede from the mother country, knew they would all hang from the same gibbet if they failed in the grand enterprise. ...

Solstice, at last (06/26/08)
The tempestuous springtime brought us anything but joy this year. I believe there were more tornadoes, fire and flood than we have ever witnessed in any year past. Property and crop damage, illness and death from seemingly wanton so-called "acts of God" brought headlines of gloom and tableaux of devastation in all parts of our country. ...

Eulogy (06/18/08)
He once declared he had "won life's lottery" when he had achieved the pinnacle of his generation in bringing practical journalism to the people he loved. He had been born in Buffalo, of laboring parents who adhered to the strict Catholic faith one still finds among the American Irish...

The five-feet, seven-inch giant (06/11/08)
He never finished High School, but his brilliant mind captured the meanings in the Gospels, and he learned to express these truths down into his middle and later years. He was a man of many talents who became a self-taught master craftsman who did magic with his hand, brain, and sheet metal. ...

Legacy in Tatters (05/21/08)
Weighted down with a 72 percent disapproval rating from the American people, President Bush tries to establish something that might represent the "Bush legacy." During these waning months of his term in office he has made akward and likely futile tries to settle some of the chaos his administration has wreaked upon the people of Israel and the mid-east Muslim states. ...

"It ain't over 'til it's over" (05/14/08)
The quote attributed to the great New York Yankee catcher Yogi Berra may have had its origin in a question directed to him with a tie score in late innings: "when will it be over, Yogi?" A similar situation is taking place today and on until the presidential primary season is finally and mathematically finished. ...