Nile B. Norton

San Antonio, Texas, USA

Born and basic education achieved in Iowa, I'm three times retired already from agriculture, military and education. My interest in wordsmithing started with my high school English teacher. Followed by an aptitude test at UNI in Fine Arts and a military career, I retired from a teaching career as Assoc. Professor from OLLU in San Antonio, Tx. My education is a BA at UNI, MA at Univ. of Iowa and Ph.D. Univ. of Denver, Military retirement came after 27 1/2 years educational retirement after 19 years, and I'm looking forward to a poetry retirement in _____? My poetry is dedicated to all semantic neologists.

moderation

Alcohol makes the World go away.
The world of unkind words, heartache and desperation.
Beware of its boozy haze or hallucinations.
Never let it take the Moon away,
the Moon of dreams and aspirations.

Mi Piedra Sepulchral

I do not write for financial gain.
I write because my poetry
may produce more than a tombstone fame.
Rather than a "b" and "d",
my poetry may better preserve my name.
It also means my creative juices flow
giving me, and I hope you, a memorable glow.
"What is your poetry about?" they ask of me.
It is about what I hear, feel and see.
It is my religion, existence and philosophy.
It is spontaneous and none is fictitious.
Distilled to its essence,
I am my poetry; My poetry is me.

Blood Lines

"I'm full-blooded," he did declare.
Echoes began reverberating around me,
"I'm Irish", "I'm Italian", "I'm Polish", "I'm Swedish".
With hesitancy, I blurted, "I'm mongrel".
In unbelievable silence,
I was the focus of everyones stare.
My mother referred to it as "Dutch Mixture".
Genealogy soon made me aware,
I'm English-Irish-Amerindian-Dutch.
Pennsylvania Dutch if one must compare
and Choctaw if my grandmothers' words are fair.
The English-Irish surname, in its genealogical realm,
occurs too numerous to be traceable.
So my biological gene pools' apex
may remain the unsolved mystery,
unless I seek the answer in prayer.

Catnapping

I close my eyes but I do not sleep.
I close my eyes to concentrate on thoughts I keep.
I might be fantasizing.
I might be rhyming.
My thoughts may concern calendar timing.
I may be considering options for future acceptance or declining.
I close my eyes but I do not snooze,
Because my mulling of thoughts, our rapport, I do not abuse.

July 16, 1945

You are there.
Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Indigo and Violet.
The earths' atmosphere rent asunder,
and sound shock waves like rolling thunder.
The basic elements turned to glassy obsidian
or jelly-like and spongy.
All humanity, present or future, were there.