A Collection of Short Stories and Poems

By Stephen Dillon

This book was written for my mother, Louann Goodnight Dillon. She has encouraged me to try new things my whole life, like writing this book. It is a collection of poems and short stories from different parts of my life experience.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Jun 20, 2017
• ISBN: 9781543432039

Stephen Dillon

Steve Dillon is a retired criminal defense/trial attorney who practiced in both federal and state courts in Indiana and elsewhere for 42 years. He was political activist and libertarian candidate for many years. Steve graduated from Purdue and Indiana Universities. Steve is an ordained Spiritualist minister from Camp Chesterfield, and active with Unitarian Universalist Church in Bloomington, Indiana. Steve likes being in natural surroundings, travel, reading, and music of all kinds. Steve is married to Jessie Cook, an attorney and adjunct law professor. Steve has one daughter and four grandchildren.

Book preview

A COLLECTION OF

SHORT STORIES

AND POEMS

STEPHEN DILLON

Copyright © 2017 by Stephen Dillon.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to any actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Thinkstock.

Rev. date: 08/31/2022

Xlibris

844-714-8691

www.Xlibris.com

763944

CONTENTS

CHAPTER 1 GETTING STARTED/ CENTERING

AFFIRMATION

CHAPTER 2 POEMS

AGING

ALONE AT LAST!

BLACK HAWK

CAT ON MY LAP

DIE RIGI

FREEDOM

IF I HAVE TO

INDIAN SHAMAN

KING CROW

LADYBUG

NOW AND THEN ON THE BEACH

AT ANNA MARIA ISLAND

ON THE BEACH AT BEAN’S POINT

ON ANNA MARIA ISLAND

RED-BUD TREE

ROUGH MORNING

WHAT IS IT ABOUT FALL?

WHILE FLOATING IN THE LAKE

CHAPTER 3 GROWING UP

CUB SCOUTS

PLAYING MY GUITAR

THE COTTAGE

CULVER

THE FIRE

DILLON HARDWARE STORE

GOODNIGHT’S DRUG STORE

TRIP TO MICHIGAN

SPORTS

MOTORCYCLES

CHAPTER 4 DAD

DAD

FISHING WITH DAD

BOAT TRIP

DAD DIED ON LINCOLN’S BIRTHDAY

CHAPTER 5 CHESTERFIELD

HEALING CLASS

AN INTRODUCTION TO THE SÉANCE ROOM

THE GREAT MOUND

CHAPTER 6 DOG-WALKING

MORNING WALK

WALK IN THE WOODS ON THE FIRST DAY OF SPRING

DOGS

CHAPTER 7 MISCELLANEOUS

DRIVING TO WORK

WHAT DOES IT MEAN?

NEW IN TOWN

HOT-AIR BALLOON RIDE

ELECTION 2016

CHAPTER 8 JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL

JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL

FAMOUS QUOTES FROM JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL

MORE FAMOUS QUOTES FROM

JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL

A STANZA ON FREEDOM

CHAPTER ONE

GETTING STARTED/

CENTERING

A MOMENT OF PERSONAL DEDICATION

Lord, help me to be such a master of myself, that I can truly be the servant of all other people. Take my mind, and think through it. Take my mouth, and speak through it. And take my heart, and set it on fire. Amen

Rev. Chuck Armstrong

DIVINE CIRCLE OF LOVE AND PROTECTION

God, please put your divine circle of love and protection around me and my body. Please fill this circle with the white light of peace, the blue light of healing, and the clear red light of energy. Please allow that only good people and things (vibrations) may enter this circle of love and protection. Thank-you in the name of love. Amen

Rev. Phyllis Dee Harrison

AFFIRMATION

I love and accept myself, just the way I am. I approve of myself. I am forever young in spirit. There is time and space for everything I want to do. There are endless ways to do and see things. I lovingly release others to their own lessons. (Visualize them, send them love and gratitude.) I lovingly care for myself. I move with ease through life. As I release the past, the fresh and vital enter. I allow life to flow through me. I learn from and release all that is unlike love. I choose to allow that all my experiences are joyous and my thinking is centered and calm.

CHAPTER TWO

POEMS

AGING

I looked in the mirror this morning.

An old man looked back at me.

I saw a familiar face in the mirror this morning.

My father looked back at me.

I stared at the fellow in the mirror this morning.

He was bald, wrinkled, older than me.

I couldn’t stop looking in the mirror this morning.

I recognized the face, it’s ME!

I turned away from the mirror this morning.

The old man went with me.

ALONE AT LAST!

Always with me, on my back.

In my hair, top-to-bottom.

What a bother, what a weight.

Albatross around my neck.

Heavy stones, concrete blocks.

Iron chains, steely totem.

Can hardly move my feet at all.

Mentally exhausted, physical wreck.

Please let me go, be free at last.

No more burdens of the past.

Each day is new, a gift indeed.

A start again with joy and hope.

Shake loose the chains and

Stones that bind me fast.

I am light and free-alone at