Ponderings – Page 2 – Al's Painting and Poetry

Why Show Compassion?

Both the poem and the painting are based on an actual incident experienced while commuting to work. My heart went out to the unknown woman, weeping alone. In the painting, the trees have been shaped to represent the depressing voices that she hears within her head. My own daughters were having struggles at that time and I was worrying about them even as I considered the sorrow of this poor lady.

A Woman Weeping at the Bus Stop
By Al Vester
A woman sat weeping softly by the bus stop,
Fair hair hanging curtain-like around her face.
Slender fingers tried to comb the matted mop,
Failing, where tangled locks remained in place.
The passing hand showed sunken cheeks,
Evidence of bitter days and dreary weeks.

Sorrow separated from the world, she bent
Alone, unloved, unsheltered from the sky,
Her bowed back being her spirit’s only tent.
The bus arrived, but still she stayed to cry.
What path had brought her to this state?
When did accumulated errors grow so great?

Passer-by’s ponder while they wait
Brooding as they board their morning bus
Praying that their daughter’s fate
Would different be, and not end thus
Sitting at a bus stop as if traveling somewhere
Sadly saddled with sorrows going nowhere.

Compassion

In a world filled with many sorrows, there are good people everywhere who are moved with compassion to alleviate the suffering that those around them. Continue reading “Why Show Compassion?”

What Is Your Family Heritage?

Years ago, as we moved in to a new house and lacked furniture for all the empty spaces, we put plants in one corner. Included in the arrangement were a wood sculpture of a crane by my father and a ceramic pot created by my son. My painting linked the creations of three generations in the light of a summer morning.

The Green Corner
By Al Vester

Calmly crane and pot do sit
Revealing now our family’s wit
The crane by Dad, the pot by son
Loving gifts which they have done.
Now among the plants they fit
And to that verdant clasp submit.

Where fish remind us of the fun
Of swims beneath a tropic sun,
Those woven palms, shaped with skill,
Remind us of those travels still
Then bring us back, where we’ve begun,
To this corner set in slanting sun.

Sunrise lights the distant hills
Spilling hope through window sills,
Then and now are closely knit
As past achievements now are lit,
Our prayers ascend up that His will
Does smile upon our beings still,
And grants us power by His might
To welcome life in morning’s light.

Family Heritages

Every generation builds their accomplishments upon the works of previous generations. Countless of prior generations have left the current generation a legacy of language, art, science and a host of inventions ranging from toothbrushes to rockets capable of carrying men to the moon. Continue reading “What Is Your Family Heritage?”

Whatever happened to the idea of conservation?

October is a time when autumn descends on the northern hemisphere, and flowers appear in the southern hemisphere. Many of the northern trees turn from green to shades of red, yellow, gold, and orange as depicted in this painting called Big Mountain Autumn.

Autumn Maple
By Al Vester
All gilded are the hills that autumn crowns
With maple trees and thistle down,
Where winds do softly toss and tease
The leaves turned bright by nightly freeze.
My heart and dreams are always found
On wooded hill near edge of town,
For this is where my soul’s at ease
‘Neath Douglas fir and maple trees.

When woodland thrills to autumn sounds
Of hunters and their baying hounds,
I love to lie among the leaves
Idly doing as I please.
Let others run and chase around
Searching for the joy I’ve found,
Brought every autumn by the breeze
‘Neath Douglas fir and maple trees.

Conservation

We live in a beautiful world that was created for our use, but also a world we should care for with wisdom and responsibility. In my youth the topic of conservation of resources was often discussed, which to my young mind meant that we should wisely use and not abuse this world in which we live. Continue reading “Whatever happened to the idea of conservation?”

Civility Brings Opportunities

This painting of a young Kenyan woman was sold to raise funds for a charity assisting people in Kenya, Bolivia, and Nepal. The lock on the window is a symbol of the potential of each individual that can be unlocked if given the opportunity. But such personal opportunities require a stable and civil society, a commodity that seems to becoming rarer as time passes. An individual’s need for stability and freedom from violence is true whether one lives in Kenya or in Kansas. The poem below was written after the Watts riots in 1965. Unfortunately, it seemed just as appropriate for the Los Angeles riots in 1992 and also for the current disturbances elsewhere in this world.

Watts Riots
By Al Vester

A land of great promise rocks to and fro
As hate and dissension hold daily convention
In every back alley and ghetto hole
Where hollow cries of freedom and life
Commence each round of hatred and strife
They claim injustice has raised their ire
The real desire is murder and fire
Never while they shout, “Burn baby, burn!”
Will they every come to know or possibly learn
The dignity is not an opinion to turn
But the product of goals that are honorably earned.

Violence vs. Civility

Violence seems to have become one of the standard responses for expressing anger or frustration by many people. Violence floods the daily news stories. Continue reading “Civility Brings Opportunities”

Facing Obstacles

In August of 2012 there were 62 fires burning in seven western states of United States. Smoke was filling the atmosphere both day and night giving the moon an unusual haunted appearance. This painting was an attempted to capture the image of the full moon in the smoke-filled sky. Although this smoke was experienced by everyone living in the western states, the reactions by individuals ran the entire gambit from fear and anger to wonder and amazement at the spectacular red sunsets and the smoke-wreathed moon.

OBSTACLES
By Al Vester

Brooks wouldn’t bubble
If it weren’t for the rocks.
Bells wouldn’t ring
If it weren’t for the knocks.
No day has ever dawned
Without first the night.
No victor is ever crowned
Without first the fight.
There is weight in every load
And rocks in every road.
Life is full of struggles
Everywhere we go,
But if we set to work,
The blessings soon will flow.

While off the coast of Vietnam, our crew coped with many discomforts, not the least of which was the extreme heat within our own submarine. Continue reading “Facing Obstacles”

How long should a parent worry about their adult child?

Most jobs require some prior training or experience, but the job of being a parent consists almost entirely of on-the-job training, and it continues for years. Then, about the time we have developed the parenting skills that we had hoped for earlier in life, we become unemployed. Our children grow up and start their own families. This poem tires to express a parent’s concern as a young one leaves the nest.

THE FLEDGLING’S FLIGHT
Al Vester
The fledgling fluttered, faltered, flapping fiercely in the air
While parent doves feared their love would easily be snared.
The fledgling feels the freedom of being on her own.
The father fears the foes of fledglings flying all alone:
The calculating cat crouching under camouflage of leaves,
The hovering hawk hunting high above the tangle of the trees,
The power line with channeled lightning singing in its core,
The hungry hunter heavy with his weaponry of war.
All these threats to wing and feather known to silence songs so fair,
All unknown by fledgling flying now in blissful unawares.

The tiny, tired, feathered father watches taut with tender care,
Knowing that his fledgling’s freedom trembles in the tepid air.
For the hope of growing children is the time when they will part.
Yet the fee for fledgling’s freedom is a parent’s broken heart.
Gone the time of sheltered nesting in the gentle summer breeze.
Now the time of bitter lessons as the leaves begin to freeze,
Teaching her that life takes scratching, digging in the weeds.
There the tedious toils train her in the filling of her needs.
Meals no longer stuff themselves down her open beak
And life is not considerate of the timid, slow, or weak.

Departing home

Throughout childhood, a child’s parents are preparing him or her for the time when they will be ready to stand on their own as adults. Continue reading “How long should a parent worry about their adult child?”

What is the Worth of a Child?

The Tender Soul
By Al Vester

The clay of the mind is soft and fine
In youth’s well watered garden.
Impressions hold both quick and bold
And soon the mold does harden.

Loving words add gentle curves
But hate is rough and jagged.
The rounded soul all joy beholds,
But shunned are the cold and cragged.

The tender soul will ever know
The path you have sought to guide him.
So teach with care those children dear,
You have power to free or bind them.

A Child’s Worth

To look into the face of a new born child is to see the greatest of all gifts in the lives of a young couple. Continue reading “What is the Worth of a Child?”

Are Women truly equal to men?

A friend once asked for a portrait to be made from a small photo taken forty-four years earlier. It was a photo of his wife when he first met her. Years later this was how he still thought of her on her 62nd birthday, the most beautiful woman he had ever met.

So often in life women are busy with a multitude of tasks that keep families fed, clothed, and functioning. Many have very responsible positions in society, but most have the continuous responsibilities involved in raising families. Without the influence of women in our societies, families would fall apart and cease to exist. The following poem is in honor of these sweet heroes of a strong society.

Gentle Gifts
By Al Vester
I dreamt I saw a shining creek
Which she did cross on dainty feet
Quickly hopping from rock to rock,
Never daring to pause or stop
To see the bobbing elfin fleet
Of golden leaves beside the peat.
The dream’s too true, I’m sad to say,
For she does hop from day to day,
Failing still to pause or stop
To see what fleeing time has brought,
Those gentle gifts so bright and gay,
The precious thoughts that come her way.

Womanhood

More than a year ago, a convocation was held in the Vatican about the importance of families and marriage. One of the quotes that was read during this convocation is as follows: Continue reading “Are Women truly equal to men?”

Extremists are not truly religious

Locate in the southern deserts of Utah are fantastic shapes carved in sandstone by wind, rain, and gravity. They consist of billions grains of sand cemented together in glowing shades of iron oxide. Their beauty teach us of the power of unity in a world trying to tear societies and families apart.

Brotherhood – By Al Vester

Each soul like a grain of sand
A fragment of a boundless land
Distinct, unique is every one
An each is God’s own precious son.
As each grain is bound by those above
So we are bound by those we love
For we are bathed in love that springs
From other souls by whom we are ringed

Extremism is now the forefront of many commentaries today and is often connected with one religion or another. But the extremist is not truly a religious person. Continue reading “Extremists are not truly religious”