Deborah*
Dear Deborah's dressed
In flowing pink
About the sapling pines
Dear Deborah's brave
Before the dogs
Inside her crystal mind
Dear Deborah's silent in the noise
And tranquil in the fight
She's fast beyond the slower man
And lighted in the night
Dear Deborah sees the problemed soul
She seeks its broken links
And with her molten thoughts she welds
The chain before it sinks
Dear Deborah's loud of cruel despise
To paint it over well
With dreams of better hours to come
When evil trees will fell
*This poem was dedicated to a dear friend, Deborah Brandstatter Marks, winner
of the Presidential Scholarship for the U.S. Virgin Islands circa 1974.
-Published in the Winter 1974 George School "Argo". With the "evil tree"
photo silhouette below by Jay Brenner.
Dear Deborah's dressed
In flowing pink
About the sapling pines
Dear Deborah's brave
Before the dogs
Inside her crystal mind
Dear Deborah's silent in the noise
And tranquil in the fight
She's fast beyond the slower man
And lighted in the night
Dear Deborah sees the problemed soul
She seeks its broken links
And with her molten thoughts she welds
The chain before it sinks
Dear Deborah's loud of cruel despise
To paint it over well
With dreams of better hours to come
When evil trees will fell
*This poem was dedicated to a dear friend, Deborah Brandstatter Marks, winner
of the Presidential Scholarship for the U.S. Virgin Islands circa 1974.
-Published in the Winter 1974 George School "Argo". With the "evil tree"
photo silhouette below by Jay Brenner.
Squirrel
Humor leaves me
I saw a squirrel
Digging in the leaves
A happy creature
He was so delicate
Like the hemlocks
He belonged here
His tail was a golden feather
Humor leaves me
The squirrel is gone
A little girl with blue eyes
Threw a stone at him
She couldn't appreciate
His simplicity
-Published in the Winter 1974 George School "Argo".
Thomas LaVerne Houston circa 1899
stock-piled little Bully
Commands the dirt expanse.
He's tough, choking a dog by the collar.
LaVerne dares declare the horseless Reo
drive him out the street.
where are the other kids?
fearing Him, hidden in retreat.
swearing "darn you!" could bring
Mother's cleansing mouth soap
Father's Hickory sting.
"Outta my way! This is Pappy's property!
Git! Wanna punch in the nose Mister?
Sick 'em Fidele! I said Git!
We don't want no noisy machines
Scarin' crazy chickens. Git a horse Mister."
CLICK.
LaVerne trapped forever in the photographer's
box.
Peter Ogden composed this poem in 1978. It was inspired by an antique circa 1899 photo of LaVerne Houston from Peter's paternal grandparents' photography archive. LaVerne's family owned the old Houston Farm in the Village of Middletown, Orange County, New York in the 19th century. As Middletown evolved into an industrial city the Houston's divided their farm into many residential lots and streets.
Peter Ogden's grandfather, George T. Ogden had a maternal aunt* who married one of the Houston Farm heirs. I believe that LaVerne was George's first cousin.
*Belle Jackson Houston.
***
Vermont Cows
I am in the foreign country of America
Where I am surprised to find farms and
Cows viewing large Chevrolet trucks
In the field.
Smelling of blue mountains.
The cleansing power of harsh winters.
A tractor creeps through raw earth
And I wonder what I look like in my BIG Buick
On a rough road
That's bad for Goodyear tires.
The rear ends of horses
Ballet slowly
Like strange camels
Waiting for Indians
Waived to by swaying Milkweeds.
Prehistoric trees thrive in Vermont.
Phallic telephone poles
Sleep horizontally.
Wistful cows
Surrounded by barbed wire.
Who are these bovine strangers gawking at?
I hear the low call
Of the wild African cow-elephant.
I look at you and I wonder who you are.
How long must I look?
How long is too long?
-Composed for his grandmother, Lucile, in 1979 after a summer in Middlebury, Vermont.
The above poems are copyrighted 1978 and 1979 by peter gumaer ogden and may only be copied for financial gain with express written permission from the author.
The above poems are copyrighted 1978 and 1979 by peter gumaer ogden and may only be copied for financial gain with express written permission from the author.
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