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Best Poems Written by James Rudd

Below are the all-time best James Rudd poems as chosen by PoetrySoup members

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Prayer For Dane Ann

May God place his hand,
In your hand today, Dane Ann,
And see you safely on your way.
May God guide the surgeon’s hands.
May the rest of us pause to pray.
A VETERAN is having surgery today.
So please God, have an angel,
Stand by Dane’s bed today.

Details | James Rudd Poem

The Helicopter Flight

One morning, when I was stationed at base operations in Subic, I had a
telephone call. A Filipino shipyard worker had died during the night-shift,
on the job at the navy repair facility, apparently of natural causes. But to
cover our backsides, the shipyard wanted to fly the body to Clark Air Force
Base for autopsy by a pathologist. Just to make sure.

So I called one of the many helicopter pilots I had become acquainted
with to set the flight up. The pilot said “No problem, just put the body in
a body bag, and we’ll strap him into one of the UH-I’s seats (the helicopter
workhorse of Vietnam), call it a training flight, and do the deal.” So, I called the
shipyard, told them what to do, and went back to my morning cup of coffee.

A few minutes later, the admiral’s Aid called, to tell me that the admiral’s
driver, a marine corps sergeant with three Purple Hearts from combat in
Vietnam, was going to be charged with some minor legal offense by his
Philippine girlfriend, in order to keep him in the Philippines, instead of
returning to his wife in the US. The admiral wanted to get him to Clark and
en route home ASAP to avoid bi-lateral US-Philippine embarrassment.
So I called the pilot to tell him he would have a second passenger. No
problem, I went back to my coffee.

A few minutes later, I got a call from the marine corps captain who was
in charge of the brig. He had a soldier stressed out from combat in Nam,
high on unknown drugs, and violent. He wanted to get him out of the brig,
and send him back to the US.

So I called the helicopter pilot again to inform him of his third passenger.
He agreed to take him, if he was put in a straight jacket and leg irons, and
accompanied by a an armed guard. A reasonable requirement, because
passengers had access to the pilots in UH1 “Hueys”.

I still wonder what the air force airman thought as he slid open the door
of that Huey when it landed at Clark.

Details | James Rudd Poem

A Whole New Universe

Science classes in the sixties were different than they are now. While hippies
protested, science kept its calm. Matter was arranged in tidy molecules of
atoms with tiny electrons spinning around. Everything was in order and
could be predicted with a slide-rule. Sir Isaac Newton may have died in
1727, but he still got us got us to the moon and back.

Some two centuries or so after Sir Isaac, physicists, chemists, mathematicians,
statisticians, and who knows who else, got together and decided to go into
cosmology. The universe of Newton and Einstein was set on its random ear.
Quantum Mechanics was in, and became cooler than absolute zero.

Electrons started jumping randomly from one energy shell to another around
their bewildered nucleus, instead of circling like planets in an ordered,
predictable fashion. The constantly-changing universe the scientist saw
became a function of the moment in time the scientist observed it. Subatomic
particle-waves were discovered which could not decide whether
to be matter or energy. Space was not empty after all, but filled with darkmatter. 
Everything was expanding. And now, string theorists talk about arallel universes!

It’s enough to give anyone a headache. A universe actually affected by
the onlooker’s looking? Empty space filled with unseen dark matter?
Matterenergy or energymatter? Parallel whats? Sorry, Dr. Einstein, but it’s
beginning to look like God may role dice with the universe after all. 

I still want to believe, though, that God created the dice, and the odds, and
knows the outcome in advance. I know it sounds counter-counterintuitive,
but really now, how else could God risk the random nature of human choice
in a quantum mechanical cosmos? We’ve already changed our minds about
some pretty basic stuff.

Sometimes I think I’ll put all my energy into becoming a particle-antiparticle
pair. Then I can disappear in the mutual annihilation of both of me, and
take a break for a while. Oh, wait just a cosmic nanosecond . . . is mutual
self annihilation reversible?

Maybe I’ll just go out in the yard tonight and see if I can spot some of that
dark matter lurking around the stars.

Details | James Rudd Poem

A Tree For All of Us

With twisted trunk of beauty,
From the ravages of time,
A city bears its name today,
Because Athena made of you,
Her chosen gift to the mortals,
Recounted still in Grecian myth.
The dove of peace and hope began,
By flying back to Noah,
A symbol from your branch,
That spoke of dry land past the waves,
A place of respite from the sea.
Both earth and peace were born anew,
From the settling storm,
And delivered with forgiveness,
Out of a rainbow sky,
By the leaf of life from you,
God's ageless olive tree.

Details | James Rudd Poem

Meddling With Math

Why does a rational endeavor,
Have both rational and irrational numbers?
Is zero into anything zero?
Or actually infinity instead?
What about zero divided by zero,
As an exception to the rule.
Is infinity into infinity just the inverse,
Of infinity squared?
Even the number one is an odd one.
One times anything is that thing.
Why not something else?
Since all the other times, times are additive.
Why do we even bother,
To end up where we started with the number one?
And speaking of starting,
Why not start counting whole numbers with zero, 
Instead of number one?
Like we do with the decimals,
Saying point this or point that,
Making our point about the point.
All the way from point zero to point infinity, 
Why not point out the point in whole numbers by counting one point zero, then two point zero, 
then three point zero….etc.
Or are these ramblings of a mendacious mind just meddling with the veracity of math!

Details | James Rudd Poem

Carina

At the end of never,
Stands my heart for you.
The ages cannot sever,
The hold you have on me.
From the arching ache of heartbreak,
To the soaring of my soul.
My voice, my heart, my spirit,
All sing their song for you.
Until the end of never,
Where my love begins for you.

Details | James Rudd Poem

Birdsong

A favorite melody,
Is coming through my open window,
On this early spring day.
Baby birds calling for food.
God's ancient renewal of life,
Is underway again.
Perhaps is is a nest of mockingbirds,
And I'll have an orchestra,
Of multilingual symphonies this summer!

Details | James Rudd Poem

Ristorante Le Tre Sorelle

LE TRE SORELLE 


My favorite spot in Italy, and perhaps anywhere, was Ristorante Le Tre Sorelle 
in Positano. It was at the bottom of at least a hundred stone steps, just on 
the right, and right on the beach. A hundred steps seemed like ten, with 
delights for the senses on every step. Chic bikini shops with tan young clients, 
tiny pastry shops, ice cream vendors, mini-galleries, and lone musicians, all 
bathed in the soft bright sunlight of the Amalfi Coast. 

Le Tre Sorelle had affordable pasta and a priceless view. Between 
checkered tables and cobalt sea marched the ancient beauty of humanity in 
every form and state. 

Over espresso, we created names for people in this parade, to suit our 
fancy. “There is Mr. and Mrs. Cold Obtrusive boring Mr. and Mrs. Kind 
Receptive.”, we might say, or, “There is Mr. Old Fat Rich failing to interest 
Miss poor Young Georgeous.” Sometimes we would separate our unwitting 
victims into “should wear bikini”, “maybe should”, and “never should” 
classes. We made up other rude categories depending on how much wine 
we could afford with the affordable pasta. 

The challenge of youth in Positano was to find a place to sleep for free. 
Step one in this quest was to find a pretty girl who also had a hotel room. Step 
two was to persuade her to share it. Step three was to sleep on the beach. 

But the beach was duly patrolled by the Beach Patrol. So the trick was 
to dance in the last-open disco until everyone, including the Beach Patrol, 
were too tired to care. Then with luck, we could borrow some fisherman’s 
boat cover for the night, until the fisherman went fishing. Still, this meant 
one or two good hours of sleep. 

Besides, at sunrise, we could swim in the sea and chill ourselves awake, just 
long enough for the first espresso of another beautiful day, at Le Tre Sorelle. 

In spite of youthful nonsense, the crushing beauty of Amalfi, both human 
and stone, pressed it’s lovely wisdom deep inside our souls.

Details | James Rudd Poem

Meddling With Math

Why does a rational endeavor,
Have both rational and irrational numbers?
Is zero into anything zero?
Or actually infinity instead?
What about zero divided by zero,
As an exception to the rule.
Is infinity into infinity just the inverse,
Of infinity squared?
Even the number one is an odd one.
One times anything is that thing.
Why not something else?
Since all the other times, times are additive.
Why do we even bother,
To end up where we started with the number one?
And speaking of starting,
Why not start counting whole numbers with zero, 
Instead of number one?
Like we do with the decimals,
Saying point this or point that,
Making our point about the point.
All the way from point zero to point infinity, 
Why not point out the point in whole numbers by counting one point zero, then two point 
zero, then three point zero….etc.
I think perhaps my minor mind is meddling with the truth of math!

Details | James Rudd Poem

Teaching Learning

TEACHING LEARNING

Some of my years,
Were spent counseling at risk kids.
At first they dreaded me at their door.
Anger, hurt, sadness, fear and pain.
Written all over their fresh faces.
There was one as little as four.
Each had a diagnosis, ADHD, Depression, Separation Anxiety,
And on and on, from the DSM-!V.
But all of them had one thing in common,
They hated school for a reason,
They were too ashamed to say.
They did not know how to read!
So when they tried to learn, 
This always got in their way.
If you want to make a difference,
That will echo through the years,
Long after you are gone away.
Find a kid who needs your help,
And teach that child how to read!
You will be astonished,
At just how much,
That kid will teach you.