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I have always tinkered around with rhymes and lyrics.
With the St. Joesph Drama Club, I wrote several songs
that were performed on stage, as well as rewriting
lyrics of other songs to better fit the storylines.
The poetry was done mostly for my own enjoyment,
but I recently decided that some of the poems
would be fun to share. I hope you enjoy them.



Here's what I wrote about each grandchild as they came along:

Here are three silly limericks about "The Old Man" (me)
taking account of his life at various stages:

A few Christmas poems that I wrote almost forty years ago:

This poem was inspired by the realization that this would be the
last time, as the youngest of our four sons asked the question . . .

Just a short poem not based on any real event, with an ending twist:

Almost empty nesters, we were inspired to include this poem
with our Christmas card that year.(Bill was our beloved bulldog)

This is my most recent poem:

It was a rainy Thursday and Kathy and I decided to go out for
a quiet casual dinner, and the following true story occured . . .


Mr. Bill

My wife and I went up the road to get a bite to eat.
We picked our favorite spot, it's kinda cozy, hard to beat.
The hostess sat us in the section over by the bar,
The TV screens were all ablare, it's sports, that what they are.

In moments flat I had a beer, my wife a glass of wine.
We looked the menu over and we soon were set to dine.
Our life is pretty great these days, good kids and all the rest.
Our family's kind and caring and we know we're truely blest.

Because of this, what happened next would sorta change the tone.
A little man got seated in the corner all alone.
He ordered drinks, no doubt someone would soon be coming by.
He'd share the evening with a friend, just like my wife and I.

But time went by and still the man sat waiting all alone.
I noted he had gotten two iced teas, his friend's?, his own?
So someone must be coming soon, the table was prepared.
More time went by and still he sat, still waiting, still unpaired.

My wife thought we should ask him if he'd like to sit with us.
But that may just embarass him, he may not want the fuss.
Besides, I thought for sure in just a few short minutes more,
We'd see who he'd been waiting for come walking thru the door.

Soon after that, the little man decided he would go.
He slowly walked right past us 'cause his friend would never show.
My wife and I thought that's the saddest thing we'd ever seen.
We had no facts, but still we said what else could it all mean?

So as we finished up our meal, still thinking what it meant.
We thought we'd ask our waitress what she knew about the gent.
"Oh no", she said "that's Mr. Bill, he comes here all the time.
He orders two iced teas, one tea with lemon one with lime".

"He only drinks the one and then he leaves, that's what he does."
The waitress knew no more, all she could say was just "because . . ."
Our lonely man's own time, without a doubt is his to spend.
He gets to choose to spend it all without or with a friend.

But as we left the place, all we could see was Mr. Bill.
Regardless of the actual facts, we both were saddened still.
Cause lonely is still lonely, and a friend is still a friend.
My wife and I then hugged and hoped that it would never end.