I'm a poet by profession
For that is my natural bent,
And I only do my fencing work
To eat and pay the rent.
I watched the sparrows gather sticks
Out on the frozen mire;
I hoped that they were building nests,
Instead, they built a fire.
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I think the peaceful Kickapoo
Is Mother Nature's turf,
And wish aluminum canoes
Had paddles made of nerf.
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To make the world a better place,
Avoid that which is sinister,
Every man should be a King
With a woman as Prime Minister.
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I thank you morning coffee;
Without a cup of thee,
I might face the morning,
But it could not face me.
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LITERAL THANKS
Whenever help was needed,
Or advice, or just a smile;
You could always count on Becky
To accomplish it in style.
"Becky, Becky, find this book,"
"Becky, Becky, help me look,"
"Becky, Becky, please come here,"
"Becky, Becky, lend an ear."
What ever she was doing
Would be dropped at your behest
As she pleasantly responded to
An oft' unverbalized request.
She made you feel your question
Was a favor that you'd done,
And she'd search, or look, or listen
To us--each and every one.
"Becky, Becky, show me how,"
"Becky, Becky, please, what now?"
"Becky, Becky, organize,"
"Becky, Becky, You're a prize."
Whether Internet was needed
Or some inter-library loan,
She would find the information
Via book, on line, or phone.
Be it running used-book sales,
Giving the Book Club her time,
Guiding those of us who were in doubt,
Her efforts were sublime.
Doing justice to the gifts she gave
Surpass this writers skill
For she always took that step beyond,
The way a good friend will.
"Becky, Becky, we insist,"
"Becky, Becky, you'll be missed,"
"Becky, Becky, fair and true,"
"Becky, Becky, WE THANK YOU!!!"
SAINT PAT'S CURSE
Saint Pat drove the bloomin' snakes
From out all Irish soil,
And the Irish invented whiskey,
Just to ease their daily toil.
But if you tend to over drink,
My friend, be at your peril,
For Saint Pat hid those Irish snakes
Inside the whiskey barrel.
GOOD WILL
He sought through sonnets to immortalize
That which Time's scythe would sever from her youth;
Complexion fair to treasured sooty eyes,
To stay Time's rust within the printed truth.
He set in verse her form, her wit, her charm
That future men should come to sing her praise,
And so from Chronos protect her from harm;
Her joys to live beyond her counted days.
But Time's a crooked foe to be outdone,
(Or did the author hide his true intent?)
For praise in verse can bring more joys than one,
And all one's gifts may not be heaven sent.
Who were those maids that time has made unclear?
The one who Time has praised is Will Shakespeare.
Now Risa Ann and Wade Marcel
Have a curious story to tell:
One day while playing in the wood,
And trying so hard to be good,
Risa found there, in the grass,
A pair of slippers made of glass.
To Wade she said, "They say size three.
I think that they were left for me."
Said wade, while trying to catch a snake.
"Then put them on for heavens sake."
So Risa sat and put them on
And found that her whole world was gone,
And in its place a Fairy land
With unicorns and castles grand
And Fairy folk of Royalty
Who told her things that she could see,
But something else was gone as well,
She missed her brother, Wade Marcel.
She took the slippers off and then
Found that she was home again.
Now Risa quickly ran to Wade
And told him of the trip she'd made,
And of the many things she'd seen,
And of the Fairy King and Queen
Who were, she said, the ones who planned
That they should come to Fairy Land.
Now Wade, who held his new pet snake,
Thought Risa's story was a fake,
And so he said perhaps he'd play
This game with her some other day,
But Risa grabbed him by the hand
And slippered them to Fairy Land.
Now all that summer they did go
(When their mom let them out, you know)
To Fairy Land where they did find
Adventures of the excellent kind.
At summers end, as was the rule
Mom took them both to shop for school,
And though they both were filled with joy,
A very happy girl and boy,
They suddenly got terrible news
When they went in to shop for shoes;
For there, the man that ran the store
Told Risa she was now size four.
Well Risa's laugh disguised her tears,
And Wade turned round to hide his fears,
But Mom, who knew their every trick,
Thought that they must be getting sick.
She kept them in the whole next day
Before she let them out to play.
Well Risa ran out to the wood
And found her slippers were no good;
No matter how she tried and tried,
Her feet just wouldn't fit inside,
And when Wade saw her feet had grown,
He went and left her all alone,
And then to hurt her even more,
He went to that new girl next door.
(Now Wade was not the hurtful kind,
Can you guess what he had in mind?)
Then out into the wood came Wade,
And with him the new friend he'd made,
He said to Risa, "I've good news,
Jill's just outgrown her size two shoes."
And it was just as Oberon planned,
The three now go to Fairy Land,
Where Risa got, to her surprise,
Glass Slippers that will stay her size.
With her it's not a stereotypic class,
With lectures planned, and canned, and pre-defined.
Where facts like water, pour into your glass.
You learn to see the rhyme within the mass,
For your minds eye, she helps draw back the blind.
With her it's not the stereotypic class.
She leads beyond the rigid-thought impasse
So quests for knowledge thirst within your mind.
Where facts, like water, pour into your glass.
But sips are small and savored at each pass,
Then sorted, filed, and stored in gentle kind.
With her it's not the stereotypic class.
You see not green but separate blades of grass
With which you weave tapestries you've designed.
Where facts, like water, pour into your glass
To fertilize new growth as roots amass,
While synergetic knowledge is refined.
With her its not the stereotypic class
Where facts like water, pour into your glass.
My greatest love and I are torn apart
With neither knowing why or for how long,
With gnawing questions wreathing in my heart
As to the tune that fits this sorrowful song.
I'm trapped within the helix of my mind
Where reason circles back to bite its tail;
With coils of thought this nightmare has entwined
My soul so sleep and work are no avail.
And so I hang twixt madness and false shame
While fate is systematically resolved;
My love hung out to age like fresh killed game
While paper hunters gut all those involved.
Of all the ways that love can be defiled
The cruelest separates man from his child.
Open Form:
Eyes around the campfire smile
In the shared anonymity of night blindness
While shadows of our souls
Dance among the flames
Seeking praise, criticism,
Acknowledgment,
Anything but the silence
That makes us
Disappear.
As we laugh,
I'm timid and weak and unsure —
But I can out drink you.
I'm smarter and stronger and proud —
When I am drinking.
I'm better than you and
I'll prove it —
When I'm done drinking.
There's one thing you do that I can't —
That is stop drinking.
I'm lost and afraid and I'm dying —
And it's all your fault
Buy me a drink —
Please !
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Résumé
WILLIAM KILKEARY
E13953 Maple Ridge Road
LaFarge, WI 54639-8624
(608) 625-4426
EDUCATION
Bachelor of Business Administration
, Dec. 1996 Viterbo College, LaCrosse, WI
Major - Computer Science,
Minor - English, G.P.A. 4.0/4.0
CIS Programmer/Analysis Associate
Degree. May 1994,
Western Wisconsin Technical
College, La Crosse, WI, G.P.A. 3.87/4.00
Options Program, A.O.D.A. Councilor Training, 1989-1990, successfully completed classroom work and six months as treatment facility house parent, St. Francis Medical Center, LaCrosse, WI
WORK EXPERIENCE
Designed, Built, Owned, and
Operated O'Rourke's Pub, 319 West Ave. Chicago, Illinois, 1965 to 1976
Tutor, Viterbo College and
Western Wisconsin Technical College, October 1993 to Dec 1996
Programing classes ("C",
RPG, COBOL, dBASE, and Q Basic), computer use, English, logic,
and Western Civilization.
Staff Poet and Writer,
Epitaph News, La Farge/Viola, WI, July 1980 to present
Fenceman, Self-employed, April
1980 to present (seasonal)
Custodian, Douglas
Mental Health Services, Viroqua, WI, November 1989 to January 1994
ACTIVITIES
Student Government, Viterbo,
95
Nontraditional Student Club,
Viterbo, Co-chair 94, 95
Lumen, Viterbo, Staff Poet
and Writer, Fall 94 to Dec. 96
CIS Computer Club, W.W.T.C.,
Historian, 92-93, 93-94
Zeal, W.W.T.C., Staff Poet
and Writer, 92-93, 93-94
Student Government, W.W.T.C.,
Parliamentarian, 1993, 1994
Vernon County Partnership
Council 1992 to present (V.P. in 1992)
AWARDS
Viterbo, Deans List, Fall
94, Spring - Fall 1995, Spring - Fall 96
Viterbo College Scholarships
Western Wisconsin Technical
College Scholarships
Student Life Awards (six)
Student Government Suggestion
Awards (two)
District Student Ambassador
Finalist
Pump House featured "Poet
of the Month" , Main Speaker (twice)
PUBLICATIONS
My Wholly Terra, ISBN 1-889406-09-0,
Prell Publishing
Poems from Farmers Valley,
ISBN 1-889406-00-7, Prell Publishing (anthology, 20 of my poems)
TOUCHSTONE, Fall 1994, Viterbo
College, one poem
Commerce Now, Feb. 1993,
commissioned poem
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