Adventures in Poetry: A Septenary Collection of Fascinating Poems for All Ages

By Mary L. Kienholz

M. Kienholz is one of the Northwest’s most versatile poets. Amy Woodward Fisher, former chairman of Washington State’s Poetry Day, described Kienholz’ style as incorporating “rhythm and imagery;” however, her poetry has an even broader definition.
Her historical poetry ranges like a world traveler through human pathos, achievement, and brutality. Here, she addresses experiences of Native Americans, Chinese, and Japanese in the West, presents incisive descriptions of Northwest personalities and biographical sketches of more than thirty New World explorers.
Her children’s poetry can be enjoyed equally by parents and children. She gives her animals personalities and dramatizes their worlds. Kienholz’ love poetry covers all the convolutions of the mating game. Much humor is evident in her serious poems, as well as in her “doggerel and other stuff.”
Kienholz’ skillful use of poetic devices provides teachers with tools to explain poetry to students. Her poetry has won honors in many competitions as listed in the Appendix.

The seven adventures in this volume of poetry:
Image and Imagination
A to Z Menagerie
Walk Through Washington State
Pearls of the Orient
Hound Dog’s Book of Doggerel and Other Stuff
We Love
Explorers of the Western World

• Language: English
• Publisher: iUniverse
• Release date: Jul 14, 2010
• ISBN: 9781450230360

Mary L. Kienholz

M. Kienholz is one of the Northwest’s most versatile poets. Amy Woodward Fisher, former chairman of Washington State’s Poetry Day, described Kienholz’ style as incorporating “rhythm and imagery;” however, her poetry has an even broader definition. Her historical poetry ranges like a world traveler through human pathos, achievement, and brutality. Here, she addresses experiences of Native Americans, Chinese, and Japanese in the West, presents incisive descriptions of Northwest personalities and biographical sketches of more than thirty New World explorers. Her children’s poetry can be enjoyed equally by parents and children. She gives her animals personalities and dramatizes their worlds. Kienholz’ love poetry covers all the convolutions of the mating game. Much humor is evident in her serious poems, as well as in her “doggerel and other stuff.” Kienholz’ skillful use of poetic devices provides teachers with tools to explain poetry to students. Her poetry has won honors in many competitions as listed in the Appendix. The seven adventures in this volume of poetry: Image and Imagination A to Z Menagerie Walk Through Washington State Pearls of the Orient Hound Dog’s Book of Doggerel and Other Stuff We Love Explorers of the Western World

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Copyright © 2010 M. Kienholz.

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iUniverse rev. date: 10/09/2020

Contents

Preface

Acknowledgments

Book One

Image and Imagination

Folio I Classics

1. Lighthouse in Winter

2. Civilizing the River

3. Our Fat Man at a Barbecue

4. Cougar and Fawn

5. Snowfall in the Canyon

6. Winter Houses

7. Stranger in my Garden

8. Anthem of the Immortal Child

9. Old Wooden Gate

10. Intent of Law

11. The Invaders

12. Modern Poetry

13. Veteran

14. Call of the Homeland (Egypt, ca. 1 B.C.E.)

15. Visiting the Vanessa Behan Crisis Nursery

Folio II Lighter Fare

1. Ballplayer

2. Lawn Sprinkler

3. Little Psalm

4. Cattails

5. Children’s Parade

6. Busing at Night

7. Glass Maker

8. Lake at Sunset

9. Spring Cleaning on a Farm

10. Port Music

11. Tussock

12. Waiting Room–Pediatrician’s Office

13. School Child’s Autumn

14. Vapor Trails

15. Snapshots of the Seasons

16. Caterpillar Moon

17. Carousel

18. Winter Term

19. Flying Squirrel Hunt

20. Spring in the City

21. Saint Joseph and the Riddle

22. Wild Orchids

23. Sea Nest

24. Seascape

25. Moving Day

Folio III In Person.

1. Conversation with the Wright Brothers

2. Father

3. The Executive

4. Little Trapper

5. Farm Boy

6. Mother

7. Girl in Leaves

8. He

9. Robinson Raver

10. Dr. George Washington Carver

11. Sharon and the Soap Bubbles

Folio IV Creatures.

1. Holiday of Minstrels

2. Sparrow Against my Window

3. Sparrow in a Bird Bath

4. Kitten in a Basket

5. Tethered Falcon

6. Meadow Lark

Folio V Elsewhere.

1. Chichen Itza, Yucatan

2. Easter Island

3. Prayer of a Pythoness at Delphi

4. Recalling La Marseillaise

5. Norwegian Dancers

6. Flower Carts of Bergen

7. Echoes from a Soviet Prison Camp

8. Mariposa

9. Map of Japan

10. The Falcons of Kublai Khan (1216–94 AD)

Folio VI Triumph and Tragedy

1. Disaster on Level Two

2. Flood Night

3. Eternity

4. Clouds

5. Heaven on the Mountain

6. Tornado

7. Tornado’s Path

8. Pleasure and Sorrow

9. Growth

10. Nation in Crisis

11. Utopians

12. Depression’s Child

13. Rangeland Drought

14. Katrina (ca. 2015)

Folio VII Fantasy

1. The Plot Against the Flowers

2. Parable of the Wind

3. Fairy and Her Book

4. Parable of the Three Tar Pots

5. Paul Bunyan Comes to Minnesota

Folio VIII Old Fashioneds

1. The Singer

2. The Venerable Piano

3. Lord and the Fly

Folio IX What Was.

1. Fossil Forest

2. Cameo 1908

3. Return of the Battle Flag (1865)

4. Enticement (1978)

5. Ancient Oak

Folio X Holy Days and Holidays

1. Resolved

2. The Man at Mount Vernon

3. Abraham Lincoln in Church

4. Candy Counter

5. Day of Hearts

6. The Symbol

7. The Elegy of Mary Magdalene

8. Lament of Joseph of Arimathea

9. Yeshimon (wasteland)

10. Independence Day

11. Halloween Hex

12. Cat on a Stile

13. This is Halloween

14. Masquerade Party

15. Trick or Treat

16. Harvest Celebration

17. Thanksgiving Evening

18. Thanksgiving Buffet

19. Thanks-Giving Forest

20. Thanksgiving Prayers

21. Lions at the Gate (ca. 165–85 BCE)

22. The Manger Lay

23. Celebration of the Newborn Babe

24. Christmastime Query

25. Paper Angel

26. Christmas Choir

27. Second-hand Violin

28. Windbreaks on Christmas Eve

29. Candy Days

Book Two

A to Z Menagerie

1. Anteater

2. Alligator

3. Mr. and Mrs. Bear

4. Crocodile

5. Arabian Camel

6. Out the Door, Dinosaur

7. Elephant

8. Fox Hunt

9. Giraffe

10. Gorilla

11. White Herons

12. Hippopotamus

13. Iguana

14. The Courtship of Mr. Jackal

15. Kangaroo

16. Lion

17. African Lion

18. Moose

19. Narwhal

20. River Otter

21. Pig in a Derby Hat

22. Quaha

23. Rattler

24. Rabbit

25. Skunk

26. Tiger

27. Unicorn

28. Viper

29. She-wolf

30. X

31. Yak, the Wild Ox of Tibet

32. Zebra

Book Three

Walk Through Washington State

Folio I Pre-history

1. The Primal Land

2. Birth of the Mountains

Folio II The Wild

1. Untamed Waterfall

2. Olympic Rain Forest

3. Virtue

4. Wild Canary

5. Bald Eagles

6. Upstream the Salmon

7. Wild Stag

Folio III Native American Period

1. Legend of the Beaver God Wishpoosh

2. Tribal Grandmother

3. Tryst

4. Moon Over an Indian Village

5. Indian Mount

6. Spokan(e) Garry Speaks (1811-1892)

7. Spokan(e) Garry (1811–92)

8. Indian Woman Weaves

9. Lullaby to an Indian Child

10. Native American Herdsman

11. General George Wright (1803-1865)

12. The West Now and Then

Folio IV In Season

1. I Am Rain

2. Tiger of the Blue Plain

3. Beach Panic

4. Flowering Crab

5. Shrine of Lilacs

6. Tardy Spring

7. Summer Sunburn

8. Rx for Autumn Chill

9. Snowstorm

10. December Thaw

Folio V Northwest Explorers

1. Vitus Bering (1680-1741)

2. Spain in the North Lands (1774)

3. Captain James Cook (1728-1779)

4. John Ledyard (1751-1789)

5. Gerassim Pribylof and Saint Paul Island

6. George Vancouver (1757-98): Explorer, Diplomat

7. The Corps of Discovery (1803–06)

8. Query to Meriwether Lewis (1774-1809)

Folio VI Hunters and Trappers

1. John Jacob Astor (1763-1848)

2. Captains Robert Gray and John Kendrick (1788)

3. Sea Otter Hunt (1790 and after)

4. Petition to the Czar of Russia (1799)

5. Arrival of the Sea Traders (1802-1834)

6. Dr. John McLoughlin (1784-1857)

7. Benjamin Louis Eulalie de Bonneville (1796-1878)

8. John Meares (1787–88)

Folio VII Missionaries and Pioneers

1. Spirit of a Century (1853-1953)

2. Winter Wheat

3. The Old Churchyards

4. The Well-Pump

Folio VIII Chinese Period 1787–1882

1.Bones

2. Chinese Antiques—Closed

Folio IX Conflict

1. Armistice, November 11, 1918

2. Centralia, November 11, 1919

3. Combat Boots

4. Japanese Internment (1942–45)

5. Hymn to Peace

Folio X Resources

1. Boy and a Windmill

2. Columbia River

3. Kettle Falls

4. Water Power

5. Cargo

6. Mining Camp

7. Steamer

8. Burning Forest

Folio XI Communication and Transportation

1. James Jerome Hill (1838-1916)

2. Samuel Hill (1857-1931)

3. Song of the Tacoma Narrows Bridge

4. Alden Joseph Blethen (1845-1915)

5. Radio Towers

6. William H. Gates III (born 28 October 1955)

Folio XII Cities

1. Graylands

2. Kent

3. Ports

4. Sunset on Roche Harbor

5. Harbor at Night

Folio XIII Recreation

1. Peak Attractions

2. The Eruption of Mount Saint Helens (8:32 a.m., 18 May 1980)

3. Death of a Hiker

4. Cabin Fever

5. A Day on the Road

6. Water Skiers

7. Sketch

8. Ski or Swim

9. The Deer Come Down

10. Elk Hunter

11. Bull Rider

12. Angler in the Afterglow

Book Four

A Hound Dog’s Book of Doggerel and Other Stuff

Folio I Pastimes

1. Recreation

2. Beach Fire

3. In the Cards

4. Not in the Cards

5. Tippy Canoe

6. Rosy Outlook

7. A Toast

8. Beach Umbrellas and Miss-cellaneous Scenery

9. Sail Boating

10. Wind Surfing

11. After the Ball Game

12. Luxury Liners

13. The Stay-at-Home

14. Apparitions

15. Library

16. Philosophy

17. Culture Shock

Folio II Limericks

1. Sir Walter’s Castle–

2. The Curse of Wise Saint Patrick—

3. Molly—True Tale of a Hill Character

4. Gold Digger

Folio III A Cynic’s Political Commentary

1. Ship in a Bottle

2. A Leg Up the Diplomatic Ladder

3. Electioneering

4. First Principle of Warfare

5. Flag Poll

6. Elections

7. Dare to be Suspicious

8. Symptoms

9. Revisionism

10. The Great Giveaway

11. The Rat PAC

12. Kook Klux Klan

Folio IV The It Takes All Kinds Category

1. Observation

2. Blood Groups and Antibodies

3. Literacy Test

4. Royal Lament

5. Masquerade

6. Hep Catastrophe

7. Wimp

8. I’m Beat

9. Changing Definitions

10. Lady Chatterleaf

11. Phantom of the Elevator

12. Space Cadet

13. Philanthropy

14. Candid Yammering

15. Disillusionment

16. Worse Than Caries

17. Signing Out

18 Writer’s Assistant

Folio V Law and Order

1. Ah! Sweet Mystery

2. Prepped

3. Criminal Court

4. Exposé

5. Mini-law

Folio VI Guys and Gals

1, Repeat Performance

2. Sports Man

3. The Real Thing

4. Falsies

5. Fitness

6. Rise and Pine

7. Release Me

8. My Extinguished Wife

9. Hershey Addict

10. Character Appraisal

11. Ode to a Self-Centered Husband

12. Ode to a Fashion Plate

13. Overflowing Affection

14. Overstocked

15. Lady Drivers

16. ABCs of Attraction

17. Trophy Wife

18. Warning: Dangerous to Wealth

19. Wedded Bliss

20. Shutter Bug

21. Spousal Argot

Folio VII Animal Kingdom

1. Dat Buzzard

2. Last Words to a Black Widow

3. Erase that Question Mark

4. Turtle Tact

5. Cat Amounts

6. Knotty Problem

7. Village Bellows

8. Sea Gulls

9. Bow Wow Vows

10. Bugs Galore

Folio VIII The Domestic Scene

1. Enlightenment

2. A Housewife’s Weather Forecast

3. Last Wish

4. Sea Favor

5. Seam Stress

6. Circular Emotion

7. Salient Issue

8. The Truth About a Dress

9. New Shoes Blues

10. Breast Feeder

11. Diaper Weather

12. Passed Over Veto

13. Alarm Clock

14. Numbers Game

15. Commerce Between Parents

16. Toll

17. Buying Toddler’s Clothes

18. Vanishing Race

19. Stick horse

20. Second Grade Art

21. Quiet Please

22. Pre-school Patriot

23. Sowing His Oaths

24. The Payoff

25. Playing with Matches

26. School Bus

27. Self Defense in the Age of Asian Imports

28. Ice Storm

29. How I Shape Up

30. Apartment House

31. False Economy

32. Utopia

33. Passport Photo

34. Genealogy

35. Night Song

36. Sniffles

37. Retirement

Folio IX SciTech

1. Cryogenics

2. Electronic Clock

3. Bored?

4. Auto Harping

5. Tech Knowledge

Folio X Characters and Professions

1. Indy 500

2. Last Act

3. Snake Handler

4. Cat Tamer

5. Rite at Last

6. Indian Head Dress

7. Fortune Telling

8. Dominic, the Pasta Peddler

9. Close Out

10. Las Vegas Strip

11. The Silversmith

12. Sadie the Lady

13. Medical Terms

14. Dentist’s Creditors

15. Recognition

Folio XI Glimpses of History

1. Michael Servetus

2. Conditional Approval

3. Civil War Hospitality

4. Louisiana Purchase

5. Revolution of Evolution

6. World War II Surrender

Book Five

Pearls of the Orient

1. The Tea Pickers

2. Tea Bushes in a Downpour

3. Bonsai

4. Green Worm

5. Butterflies

6. Rain on the Rice Paddies

7. Dengaku

8. Breezes

9. Beleaguered Cat

10. Nogard, the Dragon

11. Seven Time Poems

12. Ink Sketch

13. Japan: Seen from a Ship

14. The First Flowers

15. Flower Floats

16. Silk Factory

17. A Fine Day for Kite Flying

18. Fireworks

19. Monks’ Garden

20. Shrine

21. The Pearl

22. Tao Te Ching

23. Gem Stone

24. Purity

25. Geisha

26. Cherry Blossoms

27. Pearl Diver

28. Chinese Brass Vendor

29. Fuji-San

30. Potter’s Wheel

31. Ivory Chopsticks

32. Windbells

33. The Sandwich Man

34. Cormorant Fisherman

35. Deer in Bamboo

36. Japanese Lullaby

37. Bear Festival

38. Origami

39. Abacus

40. Snow Houses

41. Goldfish

42. Snow Sled

43. Dance of the Samurai

44. Judo Demonstrators

45. Thunder Shower

46. Storm

47. Skyscrapers

48. Man and Woman

49. Kimono Shop

50. Number Notes

51. May Parade

52. Paper Fans

53. Cranes

54. Migration

55. Buddha of Kamakura

56. My Kite

57. Water Lilies

Book Six

We Love

Folio I Infatuation

1. Beginnings

2. Perennial

3. Meadow Breeze

4. Canary

5. Radio Waves

6. The Kiss

7. Tonight

8. Éclat

9. Country Girl in Love

10. The Silvering

11. Swans

12. The Glance

13. Aubade

14. Apology

Folio II Predation

1. Archer

2. Ars Amatoria (An Epistle to Ovid)

3. Moon and Roses

4. Felix and the Crowning of the Monarch

5. Don Juan

Folio III Dedication

1. Jungle Love

2. Ocean Visit

3. Hymnal

4. Butterflies

5. Parameters

6. Pit

7. Japanese Truck Gardens

8. Love is Not Afar

9. Pastoral

10. Today

11. Sea Stones

12. Habits

13. Sound Sense on Making Love to a Woman

14. On Loving an Older Man

15. Journey

16. Arizona Love Song

17. Soliloquy of Izanami

Folio IV Realization

1. Birth

2. Child at the Piano

Folio V Disinclination

1. Class Reunion

2. Environmentalist

3. Rooster

4. Dear John

5. The Game

6. Bubbles

7. Village

8. Deceit

9. Lithoglyph

10. The Man With a Nose Like an Elephant Seal

11. Three Plates for Three Ages

12. Five Loves

Folio VI Separation

1. Finis

2. Dragonflies

3. This Night

4. Legacy

5. The Letter t

6. Knots

7. Old Wine, Old Love

8. Love in the City

9. Raptor

Folio VII Isolation

1. Portrait

2. The Nude

3. Storms

4. Wife

5. Suttee

Book Seven

Explorers of the Western World

Folio I Norse Men and Women

1. Eric the Red (Iceland and Greenland, tenth century A.D.)

2. Fredis Ericson

3. Leif and Thorvald Ericson (ca. 1000)

Folio II Christopher Columbus (1451–1506)

1. Columbus seeks a sponsor

2. The First Voyage of Columbus (August 1492–March 1493)

3. The Second Voyage of Columbus (September 1493)

4. The Third Voyage of Columbus (May 1498)

5. The Fourth Voyage of Columbus (March 1502 to November 1504)

Folio III Juan de la Cosa (ca. 1460–1509)

1. Cartographer

2. Juan de la Cosa (West Indies 1492–98)

3. Brazil and Venezuela (1499–1509)

Folio IV Juan Ponce de Leon (ca. 1460–1521)

1. Juan Ponce de Leon’s Voyage of 1493

2. Juan Ponce de Leon’s Voyage of March 1513–September 1513

3. Ponce de Leon returns to Florida (1521)

Folio V Alonso de Ojeda (ca. 1465–1515)

1. Spain (ca. 1465–93)

2. Hispaniola (Haiti, 1493)

3. Hispaniola (Haiti, 1494–96)

4. Hispaniola, Greater Antilles (Dominican Republic, 1493–96), Gulf of Venezuela (1499)

5. Santa Maria la Antigua del Darien (colony on the Gulf of Urabá, Panama, 1505–08)

6. Cartagena (Colombia, South America, 1508–10)

7. Colombia (1510–15)

Folio VI John Cabot (Giovanni Cabota ca. 1450–98)

1. Cabot in Genoa (ca. AD 1461)

2. Cabot in Venice (ca. 1461)

3. Cabot in Mecca (ca. 1486)

4. Cabot in the Levant (1490)

5. Cabot in Valencia, Spain (1490–91)

6. Cabot’s Farewell to Spain (ca. 1493)

7. Cabot in Great Britain (ca. 1493—ca. 1499)

Folio VII Sebastian Cabot (ca. 1476–1557)

1. England to Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia, Canada (1497)

2. England to Hudson Bay, Canada, and to the East Coast of North America (ca. 1507–09)

3. Seville, Spain, to Rio de la Plata, South America

4. London (1551–57)

Folio VIII Pánfilo de Narváez (ca. 1480–1528) and Diego Velásquez (ca. 1465–ca. 1522)

1. (1493)

Folio IX Amerigo Vespucci (ca. 1452–1512)

1. Vespucci in Florence (Firenze), Italy (from 1452)

2. Vespucci at Barcelona (1489–98)

3. The first transcontinental voyage of Vespucci (June 1497 to October 1498)

4. The second voyage of Vespucci (May 1499 to September 1500)

Folio X Gaspar Corte-Real (ca. 1450–ca. 1501)

1. Portugal (1500)

2. Lisbon, Portugal, to Eastern Canada (1500)

3. Nova Scotia (1501–02)

Folio XI Pedro Alvares Cabrál (ca. 1460–ca. 1526)

1. Cabrál sails from Lisbon to Brazil (1500)

Folio XII Hernando Cortes (1485–1547)

1. Cortes at Medellin, Spain (from 1485)

2. Cortes voyages to the New World (1504–19)

3. Cortes fails to subdue an Aztec riot (30 June, 1 July 1520)

4. Cortes retaliates (1521)

Folio XIII Vasco Núnez de Balboa (1475–1517)

1. Spain

2. Darien, Panama (1510)

3. Pacific Ocean (1513–14)

4. Panama (1516–17)

Folio XIV The Half-Brothers Pizarro

1. Francisco, Hernando, Gonzalo, and Juan Pizarro in Trujillo, Spain (ca. 1500)

2. Francisco Pizarro (1471?–1541)

3. Francisco Pizarro sails to the New World (1513–26)

4. Francisco Pizarro and his partners loot the Incas 1527–31

5. Partner Almagro’s son retaliates and is killed (1538, 1541)

6. The fate of the remaining half-brothers (1548–60)

Folio XV Pedro Arias de Avila (Pedrarius Davila, ca. 1444–1530)

1. Segovia, Spain

2. Pedrarius leaves Spain for Panama (1514–16)

3. Panama and Nicaragua (1526–30)

Folio XVI Pedro de Alvarado (ca. 1485–1541) and Captain Juan de Grijalva (ca. 1489-1527)

1. Badajoz, Spain

2. Santiago de Cuba to Yucatan (1517–18

3. Pedro de Alvarado in Mexico City, Mexico (1519–23)

4. Pedro de Alvarado in Mexico (1522–23), Guatemala (1523–27), El Salvador (1524–28), Ecuador (1533–34), Honduras (1537), Mexico (1541)

Folio XVII Francisco Fernández de Córdoba (ca. 1475–1518)

1. Yucatan, Mexico, and Guatemala

2. Mexico (1517)

Folio XVIII Ferdinand Magellan (ca. 1480–1521)

1. Magellan becomes a seaman (1504–05)

2. Magellan engages in trade and warfare in the East (1506–11)

3. Magellan is lamed from a battle wound (1512–13)

4. Magellan renounces his Portuguese citizenship (1514–18)

5. Five ships are assigned to Magellan to search for a southwestern route to Asia.

Folio XIX Giovanni da Verrazano (ca. 1485–1527)

1. Verrazano leaves Italy for France (1522)

2. Verrazano is rewarded and sails his own fleet (1524)

3. Verrazano’s final expedition is to Brazil (1527)

Folio XX Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca (ca. 1490–ca. 1557) and Pánfilo Narváez

1. Cabeza’s Memoirs

2. Spain (1490–1527)

3. Cabeza de Vaca in North America (Florida, 1527–28)

4. Narváez’s Party in North America (Florida, Tennessee, Arkansas, New Mexico, Mexico, 1528)

5. Cabeza in South America (1541–57)

Folio XXI Estéban (d. ca. 1539)

1. North America (Florida, Tennessee, Arkansas, New Mexico, Mexico, 1528–32)

2. Southern United States (1539)

Folio XXII Nicolaus Federmann (ca. 1501–ca. 1543)

1. Germany to Venezuela (1529)

2. Coro, Venezuela to Bogota, Colombia (1538–39)

Folio XXIII Jacques Cartier (1491–1557)

1. To Newfoundland from Saint Malo, France (1534–36)

Folio XXIV Gonzalo Jimènez de Quesada (1498?–1579)

1. Gonzalo Jimènez de Quesada seeks El Dorado, in Colombia, South America (1536–39)

2. El Dorado

3. Quesada in Spain and Bogota, Colombia (1539–69)

Folio XXV Pedro de Mendoza (ca. 1487–1537)

1. Argentina (1536–37)

Folio XXVI Antonio de Mendoza (1485–1552) and Francisco Vasquez de Coronado (1510–54)

1. Spain (1500–35)

2. Coronado in Mexico City, Mexico (1536–39)

3. North America (Texas, Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado, Kansas) (1540–44)

4. Mexico City, Mexico (1544–54)

Folio XXVII Hernando de Soto (ca. 1496–1542)

1. His Youth (Spain, Cuba)

2. De Soto to Cuba and North America (Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, Tennessee, Alabama, Mississippi, and Arkansas, 1539–42)

Folio XXVIII Francisco de Orellana (ca. 1490–ca. 1546)

1. Ecuador, Peru, and Brazil. Orellana discovers Rio Amazonas (1540–42)

Folio XXIX Pedro Menendez de Avilés (1519–74)

1. Bay of Biscay and Canary Islands (1549–53)

2. Spain to America (1554–64)

3. Florida, North America (1565)

4. Pedro Menendez de Avilés in Florida (1564)

5. Gourgues at Fort San Mateo (formerly Fort Caroline), Florida (1563–68)

Folio XXX

1. Jean Ribault (Ribaut)

Folio XXXI (Sir) Francis Drake (ca. 1540 or 1545–96) and (Sir) John Hawkins (1532–95)

1. England and Spain

2. Guinea to the West Indies (1565)

3. England to Gulf of Mexico (1567)

4. West Indies (1570–72)

5. Straits of Magellan, Chile, Peru; Drake Circumnavigates the Globe (1577–81)

6. Santo Domingo, Hispaniola, and Florida (1585–86)

7. Spain’s conquest of Portugal, and the Invincible Armada (1580–88)

8. West Indies (1595–96)

Folio XXXII (Sir) Martin Frobisher (ca. 1535–94)

1. Background

2. England to Guinea Coast, West Africa (1553–58)

3. England to Guinea Coast, West Africa (1554)

4. England to Meta Incognita (South Baffin Island, Northwest Territories, Canada) (1576)

5. England to Meta Incognita (South Baffin Island, Northwest Territories, Canada) (1577)

6. England to Meta Incognita (South Baffin Island, Northwest Territories, Canada) (1578)

7. Martin Frobisher in Northern France (1593)

Folio XXXIII (Sir) Walter Raleigh (Ralegh) (ca. 1552–1618)

1. England and France (1569–84)

2. England to the East Coast, North America (1584–91)

3. England (1592–1603)

4. South America (Orinoco River, Guiana, Trinidad) (1617–19)

Folio XXXIV John Davis (Davys) (ca. 1550–1605)

1. England to Greenland and Baffin, Canada (1585, 1586, 1587)

2. Southwest Atlantic (1593), Spain and Azores (1596–97), East Indies (1598–1605)

Folio XXXV (Sir) Humphrey Gilbert (ca. 1539–83)

1. England (1566–78)

2. Plymouth, England, to New Brunswick, Canada (1583)

Folio XXXVI Henry Hudson (ca. 1569–1611))

1. Hudson’s First Voyage (1607)

2. Hudson’s Second Voyage (1608)

3. Hudson’s Third Voyage (1608)

4. Hudson’s Fourth Voyage (17 April 1610)

Appendix

Bibliography

Index of First Lines

In Memory of My Mother

Preface

The Nature of Poetry and of This Book

Most poets and many prose authors have attempted to define poetry. After reading their remarks, I have appraised the contents of this book and analyzed comments that might apply here. Kahlil Gibran’s notation that Poetry is a deal of joy and pain and wonder, with a dash of the dictionary, seems most apt to describe the aims of the poems listed as classics in Book One, Image and Imagination. These poems more frequently follow formal patterns, though they include some free verse. I have tried to meet the criterion of John Keats that Poetry should … strike the reader as a wording of his own highest thoughts and appear almost a remembrance. I indulge the hope that readers will also decide that the classic poems meet Thomas Gray’s analysis that Poetry is thoughts that breathe and words that burn. The lighter fare portion of Book One contains popular subjects intended to appeal to the general public.

Book Two, A to Z Menagerie, acquaints young readers with some of the stereotypical characteristics of animals. As a learning exercise, a long name has been given after the name of an animal or bird in this book. These are the Latin names of the creatures, which are usually two words. The first word is the genus, the second word (or words) is a species. The short English name, such as zebra is called a common name, while the two-word Latin names are called binomials. There are many related but different species within one genus, but only one example is given with each poem. Often, there are also several common names for one plant or animal. Latin binomials are included not with the expectation that they be memorized but to expose youthful readers to the binomial protocol. A to Z Menagerie might fall into the category defined by the Hare Brothers, Poetry is the key to the hieroglyphics of Nature.

Walk Through Washington State is a get-acquainted book for travelers in, and residents of, the Northwestern United States. The author has lived in Washington since 1947, and has traveled throughout, absorbing the sights, sounds, and aura of its widely diverse locations. You are invited to absorb this book of prose and poetry (Book Three) and walk through the history and moods of a remarkable North American area. The book focuses in part on Native American culture but incorporates state history and natural events, as well.

I agree with Jean Cocteau that The worst fate of a poet is to be admired without being understood and would hope that readers search for symbolism and multiple layers of meaning not only in the classic poems but in the historic poems, and poems celebrating nature, such as Tiger of the Blue Plain.

Wallace Stevens’ appraisal that Poetry is the supreme fiction seems perverse to me. More realistically, poetry can express veritable human longings, passions, and memories. Nor do I feel that I would as soon write free verse as play tennis with the net down, as Robert Frost opined, although I believe free verse is used as a substitute for metric, verbal, and poetic skills by many contemporary poets. Some of the favorite scratchings from my pen, such as Our Fat Man at a Barbecue and Canary are free verse. One of the judges who rated Our Fat Man … wrote, The poem is funny, almost to the point of ludicrousness; yet it’s a moving and tender love poem. There is sharp and fresh imagery, energetic with the vigor of a writer who loves words; there is play with word, meaning, and connotation; there is connection between beginning and ending; there is a good deal of emotional punch in the complex meanings contained within the final line …

In descriptive poems, I have always attempted to put real toads in imaginary gardens as Marianne Moore defined true poetry, in opposition to the supreme fiction idea.

Most of the popular definitions of poetry fail to acknowledge that poetry can not only bring the honey of peace (Robinson Jeffers), but poetry can ease tensions and make us laugh (or smirk). Humor finds a home not only in the Doggerel section but in lighter fare, in the children’s A to Z Menagerie (e.g., Out the Door, Dinosaur), in poems such as Dragonflies (We Love), and the section Estéban (Explorers of the Western World). Doggerel consists of limericks, jingles, and poems for the toastmaster, bored traveler, newsletter compiler, and toilet loiterer. In disregard of the copyright notice, you may reprint these anywhere but kindly give credit both to source and author. If even one verse in Doggerel amuses, my efforts have not been wasted, and it won’t be necessary to apologize for the inclusion of doggerel in this collection.

Pearls is composed of predominantly Asian styles of poetry, especially haiku and tanka. These poetry forms especially illustrate Japan’s characteristic love of miniaturization: from creating gold fish and bonsai trees to condensing beauty and thought into a few syllables. A small number of poems using westernized meter and rhyme are included as contrast. Robert McGough’s sense of humor brightened his comment on haiku (of which there are many in Pearls of the Orient). He penned this haiku:

The only problem

with Haiku is that you just

get started and then

I believe haiku and tanka can demonstrate a poet’s ability to economize words, impart poetic meaning and deliver us from poems as long as a rail