April 25, 2017

“Amnesia”

By Patricia Brewer

Learn from your mistakes – 

They say it makes you stronger – 

I have amnesia

“I am attending Nicolet as a nursing student and have a BA in English with a minor in Women’s Studies from UW-Whitewater. The poem is a reflection of myself.”

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“Phoenix Hotel”
By Cirina Gasparri 

You caress my curves as though you carved them yourself 
Hot breath 
And sweat
And sheets that scream wealth

A taste for the finer things
You find in me
The places even I don't see

[Cirina is a community member.]

April 24, 2017

“Bald Eagle”

By Jennifer Sturzl 

American Pride 

Honor and Glory 

Symbolic Patriotism 

Soaring High 

Perched in a Tree

Freedom and Courage 

Powerful Spirit 

Wisdom and Strength 

National Emblem 

Bald Eagle 

“I am working towards my Associates of Applied Science Degree in Early Childhood Education, with an end goal of being a kindergarten teacher.”

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“The Mourning After”
By Jazmyn Chaulklin

A rip in the lace
A crack in the vase
The lines on your face
The way that we invade this space
The lack of grace 
A tight grimace
How I want to leave this place
But love the hurt and so will stay

[No comment from community member.]

April 23, 2017

Untitled
By Amelia Weber

When your hands first touched me
they felt like flower petals against my skin. 
Soft, loving, caring. 
I felt truly beautiful. 
When your hands last touched me the flowers were dead. 
For months, I tried to water them, but the petals were gone. 
I can still remember all the times that I was hurt by you. 
For two years I was hanging by a thread hoping things would change. 
I feel empty and tired of fighting. 
You lit fire in my mind, burning the garden that's grows in me, 
and now I'm drowning in my thoughts trying to forget.

It's been months now since I've heard you say my name. 
I've never been more happy. 
I am a garden. 
I am a garden full of beautiful flowers of all beautiful colors. 
I am strong. 
I am strong enough to be alone.

* * * * * * * * * *

“NO WORDS” 

By Tracy Dailey

How are you? –Doesn’t fit & I’m so sorry! –Won’t do

When someone you love is taken from you

How awkward the feeling telling how much we care

No words can quite say this, but know that we’re there

Is there anything you need, can I help out -We ask

We’d be happy to help with any type of task

We just want to ease the emotional drain

And somehow to help take away your pain

They say time will heal –That life must go on

But how can that happen without “him” around

When he found out there just wasn’t a cure

He said his good-byes, and he didn’t show fear

He didn’t think of himself, he thought only of others

His family and friends, sister and brothers

“Take care of Mom, and each other” he said

While he laid there so brave in that hospital bed

What lessons he taught us – What examples he’d shown

In the midst of that room full – When he was called home

But you are as strong as the one we love so

We just wanted to help, but only God would know…

That you’d be there for us, in your darkest hour

Holding us too, like a vase holds a flower

We know we can count on support from each other

Until the day that we’re with your husband… my father

“Thoughts for my mother after the sudden loss of my father.”

April 22, 2017

“My Best Friend Who Never Spoke”
By Bailee Haase

In fourteen short years you had taught me all I needed to know.
You taught me that my emotions were okay to show.
You held my hand for as long as you could,
And I always knew you would. 
Time was not on our side,
And every night I cried. 
My memories of you are supposed to be shared, 
I can now see who truly cares.
I carry you with me where ever I go. 
You are my best friend, this I know. 
May 24th came so fast.
Brought on so much of the past.
All gathered in a tiny room.
Emotions heavy with gloom.
Strangers came and went,
Leaving an eerie scent.
Meetings with doctors came with dread.
You were unable to attend, chained to your bed.
Unhappiness in the air.
The future so hard to bare.
We had so many memories we shared.
Trying so hard to be tough and unscared.
Goodbye my best friend.
You should have been spared.

“I am currently attending Nicolet College. I am working towards transfer credits in the hopes of becoming a genetic counselor and receiving a minor in Spanish. I wrote this poem in the memory of my little brother who passed last May."

* * * * * * * * * * *

“Why”
By Gary Zarda

Run for the elusive
Runner’s high, they say.
Not much more than the
Oxygen-laundering of an otherwise
Stagnant brain.

Run for the knowing
Of a limitless will, others say.
Mere compensation for
Nagging doubt amid
A daily, abstract grind.

To be honest, for me
It’s hunger for a measure of glory.

The glimpse of home,
Beckoning as finish line;
The woof of a friend,
Cheering my arrival;
The steam, the kneading
Beneath the sheets of a waking masseuse

I’ll not trifle with ethereal pursuits.
I’m no marathon monk.
I run to win.

“In an activity-averse era, many ask runners a question that we too often elevate to the existential to separate ourselves, further, from the crowd that mocks our passion: 'Why do you run?’ Recently, I came to a realization that, for me, it really just heightens an appreciation for simple, yet glorious, things.”

April 21, 2017

“Happy Times”

By Hunter Berwig

As you smell the flowers

You realize that spring is here

All of the creatures 

Are coming alive again

The new year is here again

"My name is Hunter. I am currently a student at Nicolet College. I wrote this poem during my senior year for a poetry project in my creative writing class. This brings a lot of memories to mind because I am a very outdoors kind of person."

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Untitled
By Andrew Bontz

Ten years ago I dreamt of you
You making me happy
Happy beyond my wildest dreams
Dreams so vivid and far off
Off in the distance
Distance only the imagination could see

Four years ago I met you
You with your stunning beauty
Beauty beyond my dreams
Dreams of past years come true
True thoughts, true dreams, true passion

I’ve always been the one dreaming
Dreaming of how love works
I always thought When? Where? How? What?

When did it happen?
It was in the house on prospect.
It was an awkward first date when I tried to cook
It was building up the courage to have our first kiss
It was holding you in my arms as you drift off to sleep
It was bringing home our very own puppy

Where did it happen?
In our many nights at the Franklin house
Seeing how beautiful you looked at formals
Having fun with my brothers at the fraternity house
Relaxing back in Rhinelander
It was deciding Madison is where we are going to make our home

How does it work?
It is the tingle I feel inside whenever I see you
Like hundreds of explosions of happiness in my heart
The spark I feel when our lips meet
How I want to hold you and never let you go
The way you fit on my shoulder like a puzzle piece

What is love?
It is knowing that you are my one true love
Love that overwhelms me every moment we are together
Together forever.

“This is one of my favorite poems that I have written since I read it to my wife right before I proposed to her.”

April 20, 2017

“Times”
By Savannah Rankin

She sits alone looking into the sky
Wondering where he's gone
It seemed like only yesterday 
She thought he was the one
But times change and people grow
Sometimes they grow apart
Sometimes they grow closer
Sometimes they break their hearts
Sometimes we look in wonder
Sometimes in joy or shame
Sometimes in shock 
Sometimes in love
Sometimes in awe or pain
She smiles at the stars
As it passes through her mind 
That wherever he may wander
He's still hers tonight

“I am a Nicolet transfer student striving toward graduation in these beautiful woods many of us call home.” 

* * * * * * * * * *

“Dakota”
By Paul Ehlers

When the moon is shining in my window

Reflected off of the snow below

The empty silence speaks, and my anxiety peaks, 

       And I’m ready to go

With the wind blowing from Dakota

And the sun riding low in the sky

I button up my shirt, and get on back to work, 

       And make another try

There’s an old man living by the river

He don’t get on alone too good

When the weather’s cold, he gets to feeling old

       I go and cut his wood

We’ve done quite a lot of talking

He’s got a lot of things left on his mind

Like how he used to be when he was young and free

       The things he left behind

I said I’d probably end up just like him

Reliving all the mistakes that I made

I was such a fool, I did too well in school

       I learned to be afraid
       
“This is a song I wrote a long time ago. I always have considered myself a happy-go-lucky type of person, but most of my original music contradicts this. Sort of like Faye Dunaway talking about her photographs to Robert Redford in Three Days of the Condor. I always think I write songs about other people, but maybe this isn’t accurate either.”

April 19, 2017

“One More Try”
By Carli Zimmerman

one more try is all i need
is all i need
to take away
these tears you cry
one more try
to stop the love we had
from slipping away
with each passing day
one more try
i am willing to give
to keep our love alive
and to never let it die
one more try
to make our hopes
and dreams come true
letting go of you
is one thing i can not do

[See the posting for April 2 for another poem by Carli.]

* * * * * * * * * *

“Never Forgotten”

By Darlene Machtan

My father’s favorite Washington war memorial:

Cherry blossoms.

Not granite or bronze renderings,

marble obelisks,

larger-than-life presidents

or reflecting pools.

Not a wall of 50,000 names that scars the earth

or the platoon of nineteen still on Korean patrol.

Not the valiant six at Iwo Jima,

not even the orderly

endless white tombstone soldiers

row on row

marching for eternity.

My father’s flag is woven

from cherry blossoms,

the last ones,

the ones that linger,

late blooming

fragile sentinels of spring,

foreign pink gnarled fists that

sadly

will too soon disappear.

The ground is littered

with their remnants,

but he looks up.

Cherry blossoms.

He breathes.

Take a picture of this.

This is what I came to see.

They were supposed

to be gone by now, he says,

but some things last.

He grins into the camera,

shoulders hunched against the wind,

wheelchair proud—

a silent one man salute

to cherry blossoms.

“A retired Rhinelander English teacher, I am now working as a Nicolet adjunct and writing tutor. I have published 3 chapbooks of poetry along with a memoir called Conversations With My Mother. I'm currently working on a second memoir titled Daddy's Long Goodbye which includes this poem.”