A Musical Education

I’ve been fortunate to have a wonderful musical education. Though not very musical myself, I did participate in band, the drum corps and chorus at school. Chum Crockett and Winola Cooper taught me well. I also could keep a musical beat while learning how to dance under Madelyn Drinkwater.

One of the most memorable and educational musical experiences I ever had though is the time we campers at Methodist Church Camp, or Mechawana, in Winthrop, Maine, got to go see “The Mikado” at a theater in Monmouth, Maine, which is close to Winthrop.

My “twin cousin” Diane Hilton and I were about 10 or 11 I think when we had the thrill of a lifetime to see our very first professionally staged presentation. Gilbert and Sullivan was a wonderful introduction to musical theater and we enjoyed every minute of it.

I have tried to research the theater we attended but have not been able to find it. I believe the organization behind the Gilbert and Sullivan Theatre at that time was a forerunner of the Theater at Monmouth which was founded in 1970. Diane and I would have seen the “Mikado” sometime in the early 50s so this organization didn’t exist then.

The Theater at Monmouth is a year-round repertory company which was named The Shakespearean Theater of Maine by the Maine State Legislature in 1975. Performances are held in Cumston Hall which is listed on the National Register of Historic Buildings since 1976.

This may be the Hall we went to that summer day so long ago, but I’m not sure. They still perform some of Gilbert and Sullivan’s work. If you would like more information about this theater and the 2013 schedule of performances, go to www.theateratmonmouth.org. You can also find educational opportunities for children at this site.

It was recently suggested to me that I may have seen the “Mikado” at the Monmouth Dinner Theater. But from my research I see that is a mystery dinner theater and it too probably didn’t exist in the early 50s.

In any event, Diane and I had a wonderful experience that day. It was our first introduction to any kind of a professional stage show. The closest we’d ever come to it before would be one of the many local and amateur Minstrel shows with “Mr. Interlocator” as the MC that abounded in the mid-coast area at that time. Of course the black face used in those shows would never be used today.

I have many images of that day in my head. As a kid, make-believe was always fun and exciting to me. This show was the ultimate of make-believe. The “Mikado” was zany and fun. The songs were upbeat and very dramatic at the same time. I was enthralled by the dramatic gestures they made; by the beautiful oriental costumes with the makeup to match.

As with most if not all of the G&S operettas, songs are sung by a lead actor with a chorus behind them who repeat what the actor is saying. It makes for a comic show which kept us laughing and involved for the entire time we were there.

The biggest thrill of the day though was after the performance when we got to meet the actors, some still in their stage makeup. It was hard to believe that they really were not the characters they acted out on stage.

Gilbert and Sullivan

W.S. Gilbert

Arthur Sullivan

W. S. Gilbert and Arthur Sullivan created a partnership and collaborated on 14 comic operas between 1871 and 1896. Gilbert was the librettist and Sullivan was the composer. Of the operettas, ”H.M.S. Pinafore,” “The Pirates of Penzance,” and “The Mikado” are the best known.

Gilbert created fanciful worlds in which absurdities were common and are what made the operettas so endearing to us. “Fairies rub elbows with British lords, flirting is a capital offense, gondoliers ascend to the monarchy, and pirates turn out to be noblemen who have gone wrong.” (Quotes from Wikipedia).

(From The MIT Gilbert and Sullivan Players site)

“These operettas were the forerunners of our modern musical. The songs and choruses—mostly light and comic in nature—are interspersed with spoken dialogue rather than recitative.”

Though these operettas are over a century old, they are still performed to packed audiences. Gilbert chose Victorian society for his satire but his wit is as relevant today as it was then. From “H.M.S. Pinafore,” Sir Joseph Porter sings: “I always voted at my party’s call/ And I never thought of thinking for myself at all.” Those words could just as easily belong to most or our modern politicians.

You will find pieces of G&S in a lot of places these days from “The Muppet Show,” “Animaniacs,” and “The Simpsons.” In 1982 Joseph Papp staged a successful production of “The Pirates of Penzance” on Broadway, with Linda Ronstadt and Kevin Kline in two of the leading roles.

Listen to a Song from the “Midado”

If you look up Gilbert and Sullivan on YouTube you’ll find some great modern renditions of some of the songs from the operettas. Here’s one of my favorites:

My experience in Monmouth that day whetted my appetite for staged musicals. Later on I was fortunate enough to see some summer theater as well as some Broadway touring shows while I lived in Connecticut. I saw Dionne Warwick with The Temptations in a theatre-in-the-round experience. I saw “Two by Two” with Nanette Fabray as well as the touring show for “Grease,” among others.

In college I took a theater course which was a lot of fun. At the end we did a play in which I played the mother in “My Three Angels,” by Samuel and Bella Spewack.  I played the mother, which is the woman in the gray dress in the cast pictured here from www.coronadoplayhouse.com. It wasn’t a musical but was still a lot of fun to do. The original play ran on Broadway in 1953 and had a year’s run.

I even belonged to a theatre group in Connecticut called The Mark Twain Masquers in which Peter Falk was a member at one time. I did the set dressing for “Most Happy Fella,” a musical with book, music, and lyrics by Frank Loesser. It originally had a 14 month run on Broadway in 1956 and has had many revivals.

Set dressing is an exhausting job and I was worn out by the end of our two weekend run. At one point I had to put a stool on stage left in one scene under blackness and then do the same thing to remove it in another scene. I must have lost ten pounds during the process of staging, planning, and then the actual show. My cat at that time, Sylvester, thought I had abandoned him as I had to board him with a friend for the duration. I was holding down a full-time job at the same time too.

If I have the opportunity in the future I will most certainly attend any and all musically staged shows I come upon.  If there’s a part for me somewhere on stage, I’m there, as long as I don’t have to actually do any singing. We can never get enough musical education.

Last night we watched the Oscars and when they came to the category for “Adaptation” I thought wouldn’t it be nice if I saw something like this up there on the screen: “The South End,” screenplay by Quentin Tarantino from the book by Sandra Sylvester. I can dream can’t I?

Thanks for listening.

Pictures of "The Well" Benefit

These pictures were taken at the recent benefit for the Well Project at the Hilton Homestead. Go to http://www.indiegogo.com/p/317566  for more information about this worthy project.

Supporters enjoying soup and biscuits

at the Village Bakery and Cafe

Michael Dennett of the Well Project

and cousin Mary Sue Hilton Weeks

Keep up with progress of the Well Project

at the website.

This 1950s typewriter is similar

to the one I learned to type on at RHS.

The State of My World

President Obama recently presented us with his State of the Union address. While I love our president, he lives in a very different world than I do. I would therefore like to update you on the State of my World as a 70+ year old living in 2013. If I meander here it’s only the influence of one of my favorite columnists, David Grima, a one-time colleague of my brother, Ted, and his sidekick, Emmet Meara.

Nanci and I have been living here in this small apartment for three years or so since the flood destroyed our existing world at that time. If I have but one wish left in this world it would be to depart these premises for the peace and quiet of Maine. My world here exists of loud speakers mounted in cars blaring despicable rap music.

There’s never a dull moment around here either. I haven’t quite decided if I want to know what activity might be going on in the apartment across the hall. Something must be very interesting over there as we can hear people running up and down the stairs outside our living room wall and knocking on that door morning, noon and night. I’ll report on that scenario as it develops.

What Happened to the Old World

I was thinking the other day as folks my age will do about what happened to my old world. Where have I been while our way of life changed? I lived that’s what. The days go by and before you know it your world is very different.

There was a time I never thought I would walk into a busy office without hearing the sound of clacking typewriter keys. The picture above is of a typewriter similar to the one I learned to type on at Rockland High School under the watchful eye of our teacher, Herbie Hillgrove.

No one knows how to type using the touch method anymore. When I learned on that typewriter we weren’t allowed to look at the keys. In some cases the keys on some typewriters were painted over with nail polish so we couldn’t cheat.

My mother was executive secretary to EC Moran at the office down on Main Street. She worked with the Baxter girls for a while before she got married. She could type close to 100 words a minute on a manual typewriter much older than the one I learned on. I never managed to type more than 45 or 50 words a minute without mistakes. When I became a typesetter later on in life, I think that average went up a little, but of course I could correct mistakes instantly too.

(By the way, my mother helped Mr. Moran write his autobiography on that old typewriter. If anyone has ever heard of his writing, please let me know where I can find it.)

These days I still burn up the keys as I’m writing these words to you or for any one of my other writing projects. I have to slow down sometimes, however, depending on how bad the arthritis is that day and which fingers I’m able to use.

What Industries are Disappearing?

Today when I go into an office everything has to be recorded on a computer. I sometimes feel like I’m only an account number waiting to talk to a real person for just a minute, please. There is less and less actual paper to handle. I get several e-statements these days so I won’t have to pay extra to get them sent to me in the mail. I never get a paper prescription either. They are sent into my pharmacy via computer.

With the demise of paper products in mind, let’s think about the industries that have left us or soon will in the years to come.

The pulp and paper industry once so prevalent in the northern regions of Maine, are fast disappearing. Soon, because of computers and other technological advances, paper will be used less and less. Along with statements, unfortunately, we may see the demise of written newspapers. It really hurts me to think about that fact.

Recently I read that the post office won’t deliver mail on Saturday anymore. This development means a big change in the time-honored occupation of postal worker and home-delivered mail. Less paper to handle means less people needed to move it around. I do understand however, the Saturday decision has a lot to do with a pension question.

Remember when we still had telex communications before faxes came into vogue? Now faxes are even being replaced by computer e-mail. I download PDFs quite often to fill out one form or another so I can email it back to whatever office wants to see it. See how fast things change?

A Throw-Away Society

Why don’t things last like they used to? I just paid off my 2009 HHR car and it has just over 30,000 miles on it. I plan to hang on to it as long as I can. At the rate I’m going, only filling up the tank once a month, it should last quite a long time.

However, some things just don’t last like they used to. Nanci and I bought all new appliances when we moved in here three years ago. This month alone we had to replace the toaster and coffee maker. So what do we do? We just throw them away. No one repairs those things anymore.

The toaster I use down at the cottage in Spruce Head has a cloth cord and one of those big old black plugs. Remember them? It must date from at least 1930 or so. It lasted.

I do try to recycle bigger appliances, however. When I replace a washer and dryer, for instance, I always choose a retailer who will take away and recycle my old ones.

The Future

I got an email this morning from my cousin Babs, who lives out in Oregon and who I don’t see often enough. She sent me a piece about “The Winter of our Lives.” While I still refuse to believe I’m in that phase of my life, here’s some of what she sent me:

“…So, if you’re not in your winter yet…let me remind you, that it will be here faster than you think. So, whatever you would like to accomplish in your life please do it quickly! Don’t put things off too long! Life goes by quickly. So do what you can today, as you can never be sure whether this is your winter or not!”

Good advice. I like to think I have more than one book in left in me. In spite of all my aches and pains, operations and the like, I still dream of things to come. I’ve had many friends over the years; but except for my classmates up home, they are all younger than I. If I’d never met them I would never have done some of the things I’ve been fortunate to do. I’ve learned a lot from them. They keep me young.

My writing and especially writing this blog, keeps my mind active. I enjoy bringing my thoughts to you and receiving your feedback on a daily basis. It makes my life seem very worthwhile.

A Last Thought

Babs also sent me this in her long email today:

“Everybody whispers. You have 3 sizes of clothes in your closet…2 of which you will never wear. But old is good in some things: Old songs, Old movies, and best of all, OLD FRIENDS! Stay well, ‘OLD FRIENDS!’ It’s not what you gather, but what you scatter that tells what kind of life you have lived.”

Thanks for listening.

Thomaston Library News

'Leopold the Frog', one of the many paper dolls made by Susan Beebe

Paper Doll Workshop, Feb. 22

Susan Beebe will be at the Thomaston Public Library on February 22 at 11:00 for a paper doll-making workshop. Susan Beebe is an artist working and living in mid-coast Maine. She has a studio in Rockland but also paints her environs on Maine's islands. She has been making paper dolls for many years. The workshop will start at 11 am in the children’s room. All ages are welcome. For more information, please call (207)354-2453. The Thomaston Public Library is located at 60 Main St in the Thomaston Academy Building. Parking is located of off Gleason Street.

Qi Gong Classes Moved to the Gym   

                               

The free weekly Qi Gong classes taught by Tim English and sponsored by Thomaston Public Library have been a huge success. So many have attended that the classes have been moved from the Thomaston Academy building’s Room 200 to the gym. Classes are held weekly at 1 pm on Saturdays. Running time is about an hour. There will be no class on February 2.

Tim first started practicing Qi Gong, a Chinese exercise, about three years ago. The term loosely translates to 'life force cultivation.' The practice involves a combination of slow rhythmic movement and breathing that provides the dual benefits of exercise and meditation.

This event is open to people of any age and skill level. No experience is necessary. For more information, please call the Thomaston Public Library at 354-2453.

Special Thomaston Library Hallway Bookshop Sale

Throughout the month of February, the Friends of the Thomaston Public Library will hold a special Valentine sale in the Hallway Bookshop at the Thomaston Public Library. The February sale will feature coffee table books, two for the price of one.

We have lovely coffee table books on such diverse subjects as Art, Classic Cars, Photography, Travel, the West, Crafts, Nature, Cooking, and more! These books would make wonderful Valentine’s Day gifts for that special someone. During our 2-for-1 sale, you can purchase them at a bargain price of $3.00 a pair. Sets of more than two will be even further reduced.

The sale begins Friday, February 1, and runs through February 28 during all of the library’s open hours. Please call 354-2453 for more information.

Game Day

The Thomaston Public Library's first Game Day for Grown-ups was such a success that we are definitely planning another! We invite you to join us for our next event on Sunday, February 10, at 1 PM. Community members are invited to bring a game from home or try one of ours. The activities will take place in the library’s main room. This will be a monthly affair, so tell your neighbors and bring a friend! For more information, please call the Thomaston Public Library at 354-2453.

Book Club

On Tuesday, February 19^th, the Thomaston Intergenerational Book Club will be discussing The Kitchen House by Kathleen Grissom, another very well-received 2010 debut novel. The popularity of this book has been achieved in that best of all ways: slowly and surely, by word of mouth among book clubs and other ardent readers who, by 2013, have turned this release into a break-out hit.

In 1791, a seven-year-old Irish girl named Lavinia becomes orphaned while making the treacherous sea journey from Ireland to America. She is taken to the ship captain’s tobacco plantation in Virginia, where she is to live as an indentured servant. Assigned to work with the slaves in the kitchen house, Lavinia bonds with her new slave family. Over time, she is also accepted into the “big house’’ by the captain’s wife, who battles opium addiction. Lavinia must learn to straddle two worlds, that of master and slave; black and white. The Kitchen House does not shrink from the horrors of plantation life or from depicting the relative oppression of all women, free, indentured, or enslaved, in the 18^th Century South.

Reviewers have said:

“The Kitchen House is a tragic story of page-turning suspense, exploring the meaning of family, where love and loyalty prevail.” - Princeton Book Review

“These characters speak to the irrepressible human spirit, and how it is possible to face adversity with strength.” – The Copperfield Review

On the third Tuesday of each month, the Intergenerational Book Club, a group of men and women of all ages, comes together to share their opinions and ideas about the book selection. Extra copies of the books are purchased by the Friends of the Thomaston Public Library from the Annual Appeal funds. We thank you for your donations. All are welcome at the Thomaston Library on February 19 at 2:30 p.m.

Martin Luther King, Jr. Food Drive

The Thomaston Public Library is once again participating in the annual Martin Luther King, Jr., food drive for local food pantries. You can drop off unopened, non-perishable food items with current use-by dates at the Thomaston Library or the Cushing Library from now until February 28. The food drive’s sponsors are St. John’s Church, Thomaston Baptist Church, the Monday Morning Meeting, and Thomaston and Cushing public libraries. Let’s keep Dr. King's spirit of service alive by filling our neighborhood food pantries in this time of ever-growing need.

Danbury Mint Collection on Display

The Thomaston Public Library will feature a special display of the exquisite set of Danbury Mint collectibles donated to the library last fall by Mr. Keith Alley of Rockland. The set includes finely-wrought, painted models of the Statue of Liberty, White House, U.S. Capitol, Supreme Court building, and Lincoln, Jefferson, and U.S. Marine Corps memorials.

This collection is now a permanent library display, but we’d like to express our gratitude to Mr. Alley for his donation and honor Presidents’ Day by highlighting it for six weeks within the main display case inside the library. The models will appear, with descriptive tags, set against the flag Mr. Alley donated along with the collection. The flag is accompanied by a certificate from the Architect of the Capitol verifying that the flag flew over the Capitol. This set of collectibles will be on display from the 21^st of January through the month of February.

Saving our Farms

   

The Hilton Homestead is a salt-water farm. You can see

 the Medomak River at the top of the hill from the perspective of the lower fields.

The video of The Well project which is included in this month’s blog, takes place at the Hilton Homestead in Bremen where I spent many a summer day basking in the sun and even helping out on the farm from time to time. I have so many happy memories of those days with my two cousins Mary Sue and Diane and my sister, Sara. Usually Sara and I took turns staying at the farm.

Uncle Carl didn’t have sons on the farm to help him, so some chores naturally fell to the two girls. I helped too when I was around. I remember helping Diane plant squash and pumpkin seeds; pick strawberries; rake blueberries; hunt for eggs wherever the free-range chickens had left them; and the most fun of all, tramping hay. Here’s a picture of hay tramping in progress in years past when it involved a horse and wagon. Diane and I did our tramping by tractor and wagon. We often went with Uncle Carl to tramp hay at other farms where he helped with the haying.

I was also fascinated when Uncle Carl used the milk separator to get it ready for market. The farm cats always found their way to the shed next to the house where the separator was. Aunt Freda used to take some of the milk, throw some bread slices in it and feed it to the cats.

All was not work, however. We sometimes got to go swimming over at Biscay Lake. There were also plenty of places to discover on the 100-acre farm, which extended on both sides of Waldoboro Road. The property also includes woodland and a field behind the homestead and up a dirt road where Uncle Carl sometimes had a blueberry field. We often got our own Christmas tree in this area.

The Hilton Homestead has been farmed for generations. Mary Sue Hilton Weeks is the present owner and she is in collaboration with farmers who are leasing the land to actually farm it again. Please support their well project which is trying to raise money for a much needed well on the land so they won’t have to hand water crops in the summertime.

It is vitally important that we support our farms so that the generations to come can be as proud of their places as the Hilton family is. Farms are important for obvious reasons, hay, crops, eggs, milk, and meat. Please support your local Farmers’ Market. See The Well site for ways you can contribute to keeping the farm in Bremen going.

A storm on the farm many years ago.

 This dog was in most every picture of the farm. 

The shed on the right is no longer there.

 The farm probably looks much like this after the recent storm.

You can see many more old pictures of the farm on The Well site. I will bring them to you a few at a time as we continue to explore present-day plans and happenings on the Hilton Homestead. Stay tuned to this space for much more information and historical facts and photos.

Thanks for listening.

****************

Join Us! Homemade chicken soup, ginger carrot soup and bread with ingredients from our farm. Best chicken you'll ever taste! Also, a screening of our video and guest speaker!

Candy Hearts on St. Valentine’s Day

(Much of the information below comes from the Better Homes & Garden web site.)

Remember candy hearts you used to get on Valentine’s Day? Well we still have them today. In grade school ours said things like: Be Mine, Be My Valentine, and I Love You. The most popular new sayings for conversation candy hearts are "Tweet Me," "Text Me," "You Rock," "Love Bug," "Soul Mate," and "Me + You."

The history of these little candies below comes from www.bhg.com/valentines-day. Also see how to make a candy heart picture frame. You can find more craft ideas and how to make home-made Valentine’s Day cards at the same website. Activities for kids can be found at:

http://valentinesdayideasforkids.com. 

The Story Behind Conversation Candy Hearts

Candy hearts got their start around the time of the Civil War. The original candies, called cockles, were made from sugar and flour and contained mottoes or sayings, which were printed on thin paper and rolled up inside the folded, shell-shape candy.

Daniel Chase, the brother of the New England Confectionery Company (NECCO) founder, began printing sayings on NECCO candy in the 1860s. The candy became popular at weddings, where sayings such as "Married in satin, love will not be lasting" and "Married in white, you have chosen right" foretold humorous prophecies of the new marriage.

The conversation candy hearts that we know today date back to 1902, when the company printed sayings on candy shapes including postcards, baseballs, horseshoes, and watches. The sayings are updated every year and the hearts have been used in creative crafts, cake decorations, cute Valentine's Day gifts, and -- sweetest of all -- marriage proposals.

Valentine's Day Gift with Candy Hearts

Measure a cardboard circle to fit on top of a picture frame. Glue the candy hearts on the cardboard head-to-head, adding another layer on top. To finish the easy gift, glue the cardboard with the candy hearts onto the frame. You can alternate colors on a single frame, or adhere the hearts with the sayings facing up for a more creative and personalized approach.

Happy Valentine’s Day, everyone! Happy Birthday to Sister Sara on February 15!

 Kendall Merriam

South End Poet

Kendall Merriam was born and raised in Rockland, Maine. He has a history degree from Gordon College in Wenham, MA and graduate studies in military and maritime history at the University of Maine at Orono and Mystic Seaport in Mystic, Conn. He also received grants to study historical research at Colonial Williamsburg and the National Archives in Washington, D.C. Merriam has been widely published, including in Katyn W Literaturze(Katyn in Literature), a Polish anthology of literary works about the WWII Katyn Forest Massacre by 120 international authors, including Czeslaw Milosz. Merriam has written more than twenty books and plays. Most of Merriam’s work has a definite muse – family, friends, and strangers – with life’s larger themes of work, love, loss and death. On April 29, 2010, Merriam was appointed Rockland, Maine’s Inaugural Poet Laureate, an honor from his hometown Merriam cherishes.


(The first two poems are in memory and in honor of Linwood Aylward, a true Southender, who recently passed away)
 

THE COMPUTER LESSON

For Linwood Aylward

God’s rain and fog

Has closed us in

So we sit around

The electronic fire

And attempt to read

Heaven’s messages

Through the ether

We were not successful, however

Both being caught up

In the old ways

Of wooden boats at Snow’s Shipyard

Today’s fog would prove

A hazard to ancient mariners

Without radar, without depth finders

Back in the days

Of Pal and Skipper

Memory is good

It provides enjoyment

When peace is about

Lin has worked hard in his life

Milking, delivering

Building silos

And the ultimate house on the shore

Here the clock ticks slowly

As if time has almost stopped

Ah, silence, except for words

From such a gentleman

Who knows how to cook haddock

And all the New England dishes

At Thompson’s Inn

He and Dot traveled the world

Bringing back the music

And photos of that world

It is a pleasure and honor

To know him

He is a wise man, quietly humble

Who shares his view

Both moral and out his window

The true possessor of The Boston Post Cane

 

Kendall Merriam, at Lindos,  10/14/11 3:16 PM

Talking with MrAylward&  hearing the clocks

 

 

For Linwood

                   We walked tonight

                   Around the harbor in the June sunlight

                   Sinking past the smoke of the kilns

                   It was a nice rosy glow

                   Smelling of New Brunswick spruce

                   You have a view of the woods

                   On Ash Island

                   That was stripped clean

                   Shortly after you built Lindos

                   It wasn’t the first time

                   As these islands go

                   Gil says the surroundings of Rockland

                   Were all bare for years

                   Until they switched to coal

                   Now things are easier

                   We have butter, not lard

                   But lard doughnuts taste better

                   Than any fancy oil

                   That the nutritionists

                   Say we should be eating

                   You used top of the milk for years

                   For your coffee

                   And other dishes that needed the real stuff

                   I suppose it is better now

                   But just this week I heard that

                   Seventy percent of our edibles

                   Come from other countries

                   And only one percent is inspected

                   I know it is good to share the wealth

                   With the world

                   But why take all the fun out of eating

                   When the old recipes taste better

                   Sorry if I talk food all the time

                   I am a bear, you know

                   And my stomach is very important

                   Which you can tell as it blossoms out

                   Tonight, we had cold meatloaf

                   With new beet greens and chopped eggs

                   Delicious,

                   Simple,

                   And ancient

                   You are a very intelligent man

                   Reading wholeheartedly every day

                   And being inventive with the accoutrements

                   That you designed for Lindos

                   I am afraid I did not inherit

                   My father’s handiness

                   Or his work ethic

                   But he only cooked once or twice

                   In my growing years

                   While I like having charge of the kitchen

                   Even more than my printed words

                   But maybe that will change with this machine

                   Your gift will keep on giving

                   As this first poem for you!

 

Kendall Merriam, Home, June 14, 2007, 9:16 PM

Written on a hand-powered typewriter (Smith-Corona      

Of course) given to me by Linwood Aylward this day.

 

  A WONDERFUL HEALING

                                                For Hung

                             A friend of mine was in Viet Nam

                             In February

                             She talked to a woman

                             Who had fenced her yard

                             With bomb fragments painted red

                             She was kind and friendly

                             The graciousness of the Vietnamese

                             Forgiving the horrors

                             Of that war

                             Inflicted by me and all soldiers

                             And U.S. tax payers

                             On your small country

                             Here you welcome us with food,

                             Precious food,

                             Perfectly cooked and spiced

                             A great favor

                             On this freezing Maine night

                             It gives us pause

                             That our present government

                             Inflicts war

                             On another Asia

                             We cry against

                             The power of guns

                             In the U. S.

                             And all over this rare earth

                             If only all people

                             Could enjoy your cuisine

                             Making peace possible

Kendall Merriam at Lemongrass Restaurant in Brunswick, Maine  

12/16/12  8:31  PM

Listen to Clare, Rebecca, and Phyllis discussing

CARPET WEAVING

For Phyllis

The Afghan women

She reads about aloud

Break her heart

At their misery, servitude

Girls and women bound

To their looms, threads

Phyllis has seen

Many desperate women

Here in the bloody U. S. A.

In her job

As a child protective social worker

She marvels at the cruelty

Against many Muslim women

Across the world

Girls of ten having to marry

Ugly old men

To settle property disputes

To settle family feuds

This is not right

According to the real Koranic law

Just inventions of men

To satisfy lust, power

It has to change

Through law, through wisdom

Women create the beauty of earth

If unfettered, educated

They will strengthen

Any tribe, city, village

If the mullahs truly follow

Allah’s written wishes

The gifts of women will be unchained

Kendall Merriam, home, 11/30/12  11:30  PM

Listening to Phyllis read DEAR ZARI  THE SECRET LIVES OF THE WOMEN OF AFGHANISTAN