Poetry for Enjoyment

     More Letters From Paradise
        Poetry For Enjoyment

Sometime years ago while teaching, I had the idea to create a class where poetry could be made fun, and not analyzed. I had always thought that taking apart a poem was like taking apart a song bird to try and discover the source of its song.
And so with approval of those over me, I had my class.

I began by playing recorded poets, then I asked students to find and bring to class poems that they enjoyed, and tell why.The next step was to urge them to try and write poems of their own. And they did. I made suggestions of poets they might enjoy.

We then made a giant leap. Members of the class chose poems that they felt were the best ones of all. These were printed on a offset press,illustrated by two talented boys, pages were stapled together, and with a cover"Some Poems and a Few Other Things."   I think a couple hundred copies were printed and we sold out!

The next thing we did was to form what we called the "First Modern Poetry Quartet." Students chose poems to be read to an audience. Two girls and two guys were chosen for their reading ability and tone of voice. Soon there was practice.You would hear four voices chanting lines from a poem. Or a duet, trio, or a single voice. We borrowed four music stands for the quartet. The big night came and the girls wore dresses and the boys jackets and ties. It was a hit, but one night only.

I remembered reading in our paper that Michigan had an unofficial poet laureate. His name was Max Ellison, and he lived up North  in Antrim County. I wrote to him asking if he would come and speak to my class. I offered him fifty bucks out of my pocket to do so. He agreed.

When he arrived I found him to be a short, stout man with gray chin whiskers, glasses,  and his pants held up with suspenders. And on his head was a black flat Amish hat.

Max had memorized many poems which he recited to the class. He also included some of his own poems from the two books he had written. He had brought extra copies for sale.They sold for I think three dollars, never more than five.

I received permission to use the great lecture hall. I watched as Max cast his spell over the students. They couldn't get enough of him. And he sold some books too.

Max came again the next year, but this time it didn't cost me anything. And somewhere there is a picture of him standing by his old VW with the hood up, showing it filled with canned goods.

 Max is long gone now, and only lives in the memories of students who listened to him,and on these pages.

     Aloha
     Grant

Oh, Rats

       More Letters From Paradise
                Oh Rats

Thousands of people living in parts of our war torn world have lost their lives or limb to landlines. Warfare may have passed, but land mines remain. Farmers are afraid to plow their fields. People live in fear of land mines.

Now it seems that help may be coming from a most unusual source. African rats have been trained to sniff TNT used in land mines. My information came from an excellent Associated Press story, "Hero Rats," by Dennis D. Gray. He writes that African rats trained to locate land mines have been used in Angola and Mozambique.

Now being used in Cambodia, the rats with their handlers are able to clear 2,150 ft. in 20 minutes. A man with a mine detector would take four days!

The non-profit organization APOPO translates from Belgian as "Land mine Detection Product," in English.

These African rats are more easily trained than dogs, and they are friendly too. And they work for peanuts. Their favorite food is bananas.

History has had much to say about rats. Rats spoil or eat almost anything. And they are found around the world, carried there by sailing ships. Traps were invented long ago and continue to be used today. So is poison. American farmers use paper trays containing wheat treated with Warfarin. The rats die of bleeding. It is the same stuff used by humans as a blood thinner.

The main event concerning rats took place in the early part of 14th century Europe, often called the Black Death, now known as bubonic plague. It was spread by rats carrying fleas. It has been estimated that 75 million people died.      

The war against rats continues. Major cities such as New York have ongoing programs to fight rats. Here in Honolulu ships moored to docks often have large round discs on their lines to prevent rats from coming aboard. Visiting tourists will see metal bands around palm trees. These bands are to prevent rats from climbing, and eating coconuts and making nests in the top of trees.

And while I am at it I should mention that Honolulu's Chinatown burned down twice. Once by accident, the second time on purpose, because of rats.

Much has been written about the history of rats. But I feel that I simply must end with the speech made by the actor Edward G. Robinson, in a Hollywood gangster movie "You dirty rat."

         Aloha
         Grant
         

Simply Bananas

       More Letters From Paradise        
            Simply Bananas

To begin with, Gene is a  pilot. And years ago he was flying a cargo plane to Panama, and back to the States. While he was in Panama, he bought two big bunches of bananas (very cheap),to take home. And when the plane landed, there were no customs to bar his way,so he threw the bananas in the trunk of his car and drove home.

The next morning while his wife and two kids were having breakfast, they had remarked that each bunch of bananas were as big as they were. And Gene went down into the basement, to hang up a bunch to wait until the bananas were ripe.

 A scream was heard, and Gene rushed upstairs to see his wife standing on the top of the table, and the two kids in the kitchen sink! And there on the beautiful white kitchen floor with gold flicks in it, lay a big nasty spider!

What was he to do? Armed only with soft bedroom slippers? He sneaked around behind the big nasty spider and struck a mighty blow with the sole of his slipper. "Did it squish?" I asked. "No, he replied, more like a crunch."

      Aloha
      Grant

       
     

Building 419 Revisited

       More Letters From Paradise
        Building 419 Revisited

Building 419 is no more. It had long been a race between the termites and a wrecking ball. But one time this warehouse was the most important building on Sand Island, Honolulu. For it was here that the bodies were returned to from Vietnam. And the dusty, empty building was believed to be     haunted with ghosts.

Standing in the now empty building you could have heard voices:
          "Hay Sarge."
          "What do you want?"
       "How many did we get today?"
              "Ten."
       "Easy day, for a change."
         "Yeah. an easy day."
   "How many did we get last month?"
            "Eighty."
"Goddam war, they say we are winning."
    "Not from the looks of it."
"You guys had better move your asses."
"The chaplin will be here soon for the service."
"Get the lead out!"

"Well, I'll be damned."
"I saw a guy's name on one of the body bags, and I knew him."
"So what, a lot of guys you probably knew passed through here on their way back home."
"I really knew this guy, we spent three lovely days in a shell hole in the jungle. He had just gotten married when he was drafted.  The poor sonofoabitch. What a way to go home."
        "Yeah, all of them."
 "Don't you guys forget the flags."
   "Yeah, those fucking flags."

I wrote this in memory of two of my students, Vince LaRocca and Bob Perry, who passed through building 419 on their way back home to Petersburg, Michigan.
      Aloha
      Grant    

(Saint) Jim the Plumber

      More Letters From Paradise
       (Saint) Jim the Plumber

Okay, I fully understand that in order to become a saint, you must first be dead. And Jim, our plumber is still very much alive inspire of some heart trouble. He is probably in his sixties, medium height, with gray hair, small mustache and a small grinning mouth. Jim hails from Arkansas. You can hear it in his soft speech. In high school he had a job as a "chicken sexer." This is very important to the chicken industry, and Arkansas has a lot of chickens. Growers wanted to know if a baby chick was either a male or female. Not many people can do this. It is one of the strangest jobs in the world. Jim said once that he knew more about chickens than God.

Jim is our building plumber. Our building has 407 apartments, ranging from one bedroom to penthouses on the top floors. That is a lot of plumbing. And that means a lot of leaks. Some of the apartments are empty until the "Snow Birds" return for the winter and turn on all their plumbing. Then the leaks begin. Rubber gaskets and seals that have become dry, fail to seal.

Jim is always on the run fixing leaks. I know to a fact that he has returned here from his home, in order to make a repair. He has also worked all night too.

Jim has always given gifts of bananas, avocados, and orchids to many of the people in the building. But in spite of all this, there are some people living on the 35th floor who dislike him. The problem  stems from the fact that large pipes run through the 35th floor, and sometimes cause major leaks. Drywall melts with the water, rugs and floors are ruined. Jim and his crew try to restore the damage. The residents take out their anger on Jim, who is not the cause of the trouble.

For some 14 years Jim has helped a Japanese woman to care for her wheelchair- bound daughter. The husband had left for Japan, some time ago, leaving his wife and a care giver to care for the girl.
A couple of days before Christmas, I asked Jim what he planned to do for the holiday. He said only, "I will be here, it's bath time. She can't lift her in or out of the bath tub.  Care givers don't work on Christmas."

      Aloha
      Grant
   

Desert Secret

      More LettersFrom Paradise
           Desert Secret

He told me that he liked to hike, and there is a lot of desert to hike. He said that he would often take along some boys who also liked to hike, and explore the desert.

One time he and the boys had hiked two miles into the desert. Some of the boys had ranged on ahead. They stopped in their tracks as they saw the body of a man hanging. Moving closer they saw that the man had zipped himself into a sleeping bag, pulled the hood over his face, and stepped off a plastic bucket at the foot of the tree.

A couple of the boys trudged back to the road to call the police. The police arrived using an ATV to cross the desert.

That's all there is to it. But several questions remain. Such as "Why would he have chosen to walk two miles into the desert in order to commit suicide?" And why the use of a sleeping bag?" " Did he find the bucket, or carry it in?" And "Who was he?" The desert has long kept its secrets. And this is only one.

     Aloha
     Grant

A Story of Three Minerals

      More Letters From Paradise
       A Story of Three Minerals

In the vast empty reaches of the Southwest, where Utah, New Mexico, Arizona, and Colorado all meet together, lies the Navajo Nation. The Navajo scratch out a bare living herding sheep.

The federal government had a hospital built, along with offices and residences for doctors. The well dug to supply water was found to be filled with arsenic. As a result, the buildings now stand empty and abandoned. And the Navajo still are without a hospital.

The next story is about the result of the mad rush to mine uranium. The tailings from the mines and the dust on the ground became a playground for Navajo children. The result was radiation poisoning.

My final story concerns the people living in Lake Havasu, Arizona. The city lies alongside the Colorado River. The lake was formed when Parker Dam was built. For a number of years I wondered why the citizens of Lake Havasu could not get its water from the Colorado River. I now know the answer. The water drawn from the Colorado River is strictly regulated. Much of the water is used by farmers in California.

Lake Havasu draws its water from wells. And the water contains manganese. The people living there have reverse osmosis filters in their homes. The filter traps the manganese, which looks like black gunk.

It's in all the news. The city of Flint, Michigan, began drawing its water from the Flint River as a cost-cutting measure instead of from the Detroit water system.    The river contains lead. Many children have been poisoned.

So, friend, how's the water where you live?

       Aloha
       Grant