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Eric Shelman Poem
My Comprehensive Learning Disabilities!
Began as child with always failing standardized test because I didn't learn like my fellow classmates did
I couldn't comprehend anything or retain anything either
I learned that I had a comprehensive learning disability, however, never was I placed in mentally challenged classes
I had a hard time barely passing my classes all throughout my school years and even in college
I learned that I had to use all three psychological learning types
auditory having to hear and listen to whatever is being taught to me
visual having to see whatever is being taught to me
kinesthetic having to actually write, do, mess up and be corrected or realize I was wrong and correct myself
I had and still have to do all three, in order to comprehend anything that I learned from reading books, being taught in classrooms
at home, on the jobsite, on two United States Of America's Navy ships, boot camp, college, love, relationships, churches and everywhere else as well
as a child and even an adolescent I taught myself to overcome it
becoming an adult I did all three of these whenever I wanted truly to learn something
I wrote down questions for tests on notecards read the questions and answers to myself and had three other people read them to me for several hours
my comprehensive disability then and even now we're surfaced, literal, occasionally figurative and metaphorical
as a thirty-three year old man, now it seems that memory, and my problems have worsened as well
because I every time I read something nowadays I cannot seem to recall it or even comprehend it either!
Copyright © Eric Shelman | Year Posted 2019
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Eric Shelman Poem
Happy Fourth Of July, Or Happy Independence Day
On this day we celebrate and commemorate the birth of our nation, The United States of America's Independence from Great Britain's monarchical hold and liberty's triumph
Congress voting in favor of Richard Henry Lee's resolution on the second of July, 1776
however, Congress adopted The Declaration of Independence on the Fourth of July 1776
Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, and John Adams, for drafting and signing it
John Adams wrote to his wife that July the second “will be celebrated, by succeeding generations, as the great anniversary festival” and that the celebration should include “pomp and parades, games, sports, guns, bells, bonfires and illuminations from one end of this continent to the other.”
The United States of America's first flag made by Betty Ross, and America's second flag made by Robert G Heft.
The United States of America's great seal made by Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, and John Adams
American symbolism, patriotism, and nationalism
During pre-Revolutionary years, colonists had held annual celebrations of the king’s birthday, which traditionally included the ringing of bells, bonfires, processions and speechmaking. However, in contrast, during the summer of 1776 some colonists celebrated the birth of independence by holding mock funerals for King George III, as a way of symbolizing the end of the monarchy’s hold on America and the triumph of liberty.
Festivities including concerts, bonfires, parades and the firing of cannons and muskets usually accompanied the first public readings of the Declaration of Independence, beginning immediately after its adoption. Philadelphia held the first annual commemoration of independence on July 4, 1777, while Congress was still occupied with the ongoing war.
George Washington issued double rations of rum to all his soldiers to mark the anniversary of independence in 1778, and in 1781, several months before the key American victory at Yorktown, Massachusetts became the first state to make July 4th an official state holiday.
In the time of the initial battles in the Revolutionary War broke out in April 1775, few colonists desired complete independence from Great Britain, and those who did were considered radical.
Nevertheless, in the middle of that year many more colonists had come to favor independence, thanks to growing hostility against Britain and the spread of revolutionary sentiments such as those expressed in the bestselling pamphlet “Common Sense,” published by Thomas Paine in early 1776.
On June 7, when the Continental Congress met at the Pennsylvania State House (later Independence Hall) in Philadelphia, the Virginia delegate Richard Henry Lee introduced a motion calling for the colonies’ independence.
Amid heated debate, Congress postponed the vote on Lee’s resolution, but appointed a five-man committee—including Thomas Jefferson of Virginia, John Adams of Massachusetts, Roger Sherman of Connecticut, Benjamin Franklin of Pennsylvania and Robert R. Livingston of New York—to draft a formal statement justifying the break with Great Britain.
In its early years of the republic, Independence Day was commemorated with parades, oratory, and toasting in ceremonies that celebrated the existence of the new nation. These rites played an equally important role in the evolving federal political system. With the rise of informal political parties, they provided venues for leaders and constituents to tie local and national contests to independence and the issues facing the national polity. By the mid-1790s the two nascent political parties held separate partisan Independence Day festivals in most larger towns. Perhaps for this reason, Independence Day became the model for a series of (often short-lived) celebrations that sometimes contained more explicit political resonance, such as George Washington’s birthday and the anniversary of Jefferson’s inauguration while he served as president (1801–09)
Commemorating annual nationhood. it commemorates the passage of the Declaration of Independence by the Continental Congress on July 4, 1776.
Especially in the 17th and 18th centuries, when dynastic and religious controversies racked the British Empire (and much of the rest of Europe), the choice of which anniversaries of historical events were celebrated and which were lamented had clear political meanings. The ritual of toasting the king and other patriot-heroes—or of criticizing them—became an informal kind of political speech, further formalized in mid-18th century when the toasts given at taverns and banquets began to be reprinted in newspapers
After the Revolutionary War, Americans continued to commemorate Independence Day every year, in celebrations that allowed the new nation’s emerging political leaders to address citizens and create a feeling of unity. By the last decade of the 18th century, the two major political parties—the Federalist Party and Democratic-Republicans—that had arisen began holding separate Fourth of July celebration in many large cities.
Fourth of July becomes a federal holiday
The tradition of patriotic celebration became even more widespread after the War of 1812, in which the United States again faced Great Britain. In 1870, the U.S. Congress made July 4th a federal holiday; in 1941, the provision was expanded to grant a paid holiday to all federal employees.
Over the years, the political importance of the holiday would decline, but Independence Day remained an important national holiday and a symbol of patriotism.
Falling in mid-summer, the Fourth of July has since the late 19th century become a major focus of leisure activities and a common occasion for family get-togethers, often involving fireworks and outdoor barbecues. The most common symbol of the holiday is the American flag, and a common musical accompaniment is “The Star-Spangled Banner,” the national anthem of the United States.
Copyright © Eric Shelman | Year Posted 2019
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Eric Shelman Poem
War Is...
War is unkind to servicemen, women, animals, flora, fauna, nature's terrains, seas, atmospheres, and everything else
War is unjust and unethical to everyone
War is the slaughtering of innocent young and old men and women of both sides which are fighting for their leader's version of freedom, or simply protecting themselves from so called enemies
War is fought on both domestic and forgein lands
War is authorized and legalized mass murder of both sides
War is an inevitable necessity evil in order to be free
War is beyond expensive monetarily, mentally, physically, psychologically, death stats, and causality states versus survival stats
War is heartbreaking, heart-wrecking, and heart-wrenching, to the servicemen, to the parents, lovers, wives, husbands, and children of servicemen on both sides
War is caused by several different variables usually for economic and territorial gain
religion, Nationalism, revenge, Civil War,
revolutionary, being defensive, ethnic cleansing and other ideological mass killings, globalism, world domination, and so many others
War is fought by young and old men and women as either draftees, or volunteers
War is ugly
War is horrific
War is traumatic
War is dramatic
War is psychologically scarring
War is terrifying
War is brutal
War is common
War is unpopular
War is propagated
War is hated
War is detrimental
War is immoral
War is sometimes manufactured
War is unpreventable
War is fighting for your and their commander-in-chief's ideologies whether you like it or not
War is glorified
War is sometimes created by opposing forces in order to gain something from one another
War is everything I mentioned above and so much more
War is not a favorite of mine, however, as United States Navy veteran and having lots of veterans in my family as well there is no harm in honoring and respecting the young and old men and women who died in war for us, and those that didn't die in battle but still served in the military for all of us!
Copyright © Eric Shelman | Year Posted 2019
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Eric Shelman Poem
Childhood Memories!
Playing soccer as a forward and a goalie in early childhood through first grade
meeting a pilot and a stewardess in kindergarten and even wanted to be a pilot for a while because I thought it was cool
wanting to be a fireman, an astronaut, a zoologist, an anthropologist, a historian, a writer, a poet, and always changing my mind on what I wanted to be whenever I grew up
playing board and video games with my siblings and my friends
reading all sorts of books
even writing four short stories
and writing two amauter novels
mimicking my favorite poets trying to write like them and always searching for my voice as a writer and a poet
writing mostly spiritual and teenage angst poems
never knowing my purpose and meaning in life
always adventuring in and out of nature
making up games to play with himself and my siblings
going on road trips with my parents and my siblings
wandering and pondering if Christianity and Mormonism's version of it religions were for me or not
field tripping to all sorts of museums, water parks, IMAX theaters, adventure parks, bowling alleys, and arcades
Learning to cook whatever I wanted to my stepdad who I never actually got along with because he wasn't my biological father to me
however, he actually stepped up to the plate and adopted me as if I was his own child
wanting to always meet my biological father
who gave up his rights as a father to me whenever I was two years old
hating myself because I considered myself to be boring, dumb, and that no one could ever understand my weirdness and differences
struggling and overcoming my comprehensive and learning problems
hating my mom for leaving my biological father and hiding him from me but I eventually got over and realized that she did what any mother in nature would have done,
in order to protect her young
spending nights and weekends with my grandparents and my granny doing all sorts of fun activities with my grandparents
watching Jeopardy and Wheel of Fortune all of the time
reading dictionaries and encyclopedias
working with and for my great uncle Fred
picking up branches, twigs, sweet gum balls digging and pulling up lots thistle weed
filling a week's worth in several of his trailers and being paid twenty bucks for it
getting baptised in the LDS church
attending a few other churches with my grandparents and my granny
fishing quite bit
went hunting for pigs with a backpack full of books
hunted for squirrels and raccoons but never found any just found their tracks
Swinging on a swing set
twisting the chains on the swing all the way up and letting it unwind while I was facing down on my belly
wanting to always be the cool and normal kid
desired to loved and accepted by everything even certain ex-girlfriends and ex girls that were just friends that I wanted to be my lovers!
Copyright © Eric Shelman | Year Posted 2019
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Eric Shelman Poem
Literary Critics Have So Much Fun!
Literary critics have so much fun
telling every writer and poet
how they approve or disapprove
of each writer and poet's works
giving constructive and destructive criticism
to each one
advising them that each one sucks
or is magnificent
either lacking complete talent
as a writer and poet
or being truly talented
as a writer and poet
writing good and bad reviews
sometimes even steering potential readers and buyers of books away because they read this or that literary critics review and took it as an absolute truth instead of buying and reading the book in order to make his or her own mind up about the book
defining what is good and bad literature
expecting everyone else to adhere to their criticism as if it is an absolute truth just because their opinion is a fact to each literary critic
allowing their biases to cloud their judgements on all things literature
benefiting and condemning whomever's careers they want to because this or that work doesn't fit in their perfect biased categorisation
making it seem to be utter nonsense
one must always wonder and ponder on who made them the writer and poet gods and goddesses of their time and especially today?
Copyright © Eric Shelman | Year Posted 2019
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Eric Shelman Poem
Festival of the Fools!
Festival of the Fools
in which is celebrated in different culture as different names
originally celebrated by most cultures on January first
which was first coined in Great Britain in 1861
celebrates inclusive art of busking
and street performance
with foolish fun for all ages
devoted to community engagement
and making arts accessible to everyone
three full days of acrobats, circus arts
quirky comedy, and diverse music
In the Middle Ages
a mock pope, or a Lord of Misrule, was elected ecclesiastical rituals were parodied
low and high officials swapped places
could have originated from the Kalends and probably Christian adaptation of Saturnalia
In the thirteenth century they became burlesque of Christian morality and worship
despite repeated prohibitions and penalties
imposed by Council of Basel in 1431
these feasts didn't disappear until the sixteenth century
often dressed in street clothing, including women's clothing, masks, garlands of greenery, or even in fools’ costumes
priests and clerks wearing masks
and dressed as woman, panders, or minstrels
Exalting fools and foolishness
Praising and toasting every fool
Mocking fools and foolishness
Feasting and drinking like royalty!
Copyright © Eric Shelman | Year Posted 2019
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Eric Shelman Poem
Anxiety bursts confusion
distraught entanglements frenzies
grappling hysteria indecisiveness
jitters knockings lows
mania noticeable oppression
panics qualms rigorousness
sufferings torments unhappiness
valuelessness wretchedness xed
yucky zaniness
Copyright © Eric Shelman | Year Posted 2019
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Eric Shelman Poem
My Muse!
My muse is not an imaginary being made up by ancient civilizations saying that inspiration
for everything comes from supernatural beings different ones assigned to different things
instead it comes from inside of my brain
which derives from my creativity
my imagination
my fantastical thoughts
my intellect
my stupidity
my rage
my anger
my indecisiveness
my two year old tantrum throwing
my acting before thinking rationally
my truly raw and naked side of me
my selfishness
my introvertedness
my extrovertedness
my imbalances
my believes
my disbelieves
my wants
my desires
my goals
my dreams
my problems
my solutions
my uncontrollables
my unknowable
my travels
my mental disorders
my passions
my hatreds
my biases
my nonsenses
my nuances
my lovers
my ex-lovers
my interests
my disinterests
my attacks
my heart aches
my heart breaks
my successes
my failures
my anything and everything inspires me to write whatever comes my way
whenever I make it come to pass
by writing it into existence through my poetry and my poetic-proses!
Copyright © Eric Shelman | Year Posted 2019
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Eric Shelman Poem
My Experimentation Days!
My experimentation days began while I was serving the United States Navy
I had begun drinking at age twenty-one
and had tried and experimented by tasted over two hundred all together brands of different beers, whiskeys, rums, sakis
vodka, wines, asaki, and other alcoholic beverages
in doing so I justified it to figure what I considered be a good and bad alcoholic beverage
I smoked marijuana and eat psilocybin mushrooms for the first time in the Navy, shortly before I got out and didn't get caught on my drug test either
once I was in college I began experimenting with more different alcoholic beverages
eventually experimenting with lots more marijuana, cocaine, ecstasy, Molly, adrela, hashish, flavored tobacco, and cigarettes
Smoked cigarettes for two weeks to see if I enjoyed or if they actually gave me an adrenaline rush like the others had and it actually gave me four canker sores, four fever blisters all at the same time
stopped smoking cigarettes every since I realized that I am allergic to them
each drug became my escapade just like aforementioned about my binging drinking
I actually enjoyed doing them
however, I eventually burnt out on all of them except for alcohol of course and quit doing all of the other drugs because they weren't giving me the same high that they had the first time that I tried them
I quit them all cold turkey and never had withdraws from any of them
after nine years of binge drinking and three years of other drug usage I quit drinking as well
I have been clean and sober for five years and it has definitely help me with so much in my life!
Copyright © Eric Shelman | Year Posted 2019
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Eric Shelman Poem
Indecisive Running Away Man I Am!
Always running away to and from
anything and everything
anyone and everyone in which I
indecisively not knowing what to do or even where ever to go in order
to find solace and acceptance by others and especially myself
adapting to but still struggling with having only solace in solitude for now
never actually solving my problems
instead keeping my mind occupied on other things
running away and restarting my life every two to three years is my only solution
in hopes of finding finding sustainability and balance in everything and especially myself
It's a vicious endless circular cycle
working a decent paying job
then getting fed up with it
quitting and running away again
my life has been and still is a never-ending running away from everything and anything
that I disagree with or get fed up with every since I joined and left the United States of America's Navy!
Copyright © Eric Shelman | Year Posted 2019
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