Best Dwight D Eisenhower Poems
Choosing a favorite President is quite an arduous task
Given that most politicians usually wear a spurious mask,
but as a student of History, there was one that I admired;
" the scrappy kid from Kansas."* So many he has inspired.
In his biography there's a plethora of interesting information.
'Ike" was a 5 star general, besides leading this great nation.
A war hero, selected to be America's Commander and Chief.
A man of great integrity, who did not cause his country grief.
In his honor, a Washington Memorial was dedicated.
His bravery in war, and acts as President are celebrated.
After the war, he commanded European NATO forces
and overthrew communism from it's evil courses.
Voted U. S. President in 1952, with the slogan, "I Like Ike,"
Richard Nixon was his running mate; they were nothing alike.
In two terms served, he created a grand legacy for his name.
A President for the people, to him the office was not a game.
There are many valuable quotes that Eisenhower left behind
and I'll end with a few that I feel worthy for us to keep in mind;
none more appropriate than this one, I was happy to find...
"Some day there is going to be a man sitting in my present chair who has not been raised in the military services and who will have little understanding of where slashes in their estimates can be made with little or no damage. If that should happen while we still have the state of tension that now exists in the world, I shudder to think of what could happen in this country."
"The middle of the road is all of the usable surface. The extremes, right and left, are in the gutters."
"Leadership consists of nothing but taking responsibility for everything that goes wrong and giving your subordinates credit for everything that goes well."
"If a political party does not have its foundation in the determination to advance a cause that is right and that is moral, then it is not a political party; it is merely a conspiracy to seize power."
February 11, 2021
Your Favorite President Contest
Sponsored by: L Milton Hankins
*Inscribed on the Eisenhower Memorial
In December 1951, I turned ten years old--
Harry Truman was president of the United States,
The Korean Conflict raged on a faraway peninsula,
The Golden Gate Bridge closed due to high winds.
My mother developed melanoma in her left leg.
In December of 1956, I turned fifteen years old--
Dwight D. Eisenhower was president of the United States
The Korean Conflict was over,
Asian flu reached pandemic levels, and,
Elvis Presley purchased Graceland.
My mother died on a hot July 1957 evening in our home,
And our lives changed forever--
For, you see, our mother meant the whole world to us.
Elizabeth Agnes Allport Hankins was only forty-two-years old
when she passed away, leaving three children:
my sister Lois, the oldest at twenty-two,
my brother Jimmie, the youngest at ten,
and me.
Two communities mourned the death of our sweet, Godly mother
who for a little over five years, through suffering and pain,
cared for us kids and taught us how to care for ourselves, for
“After I’m gone,” she would say, “You’ll need to know this.”
We never heard her cry,
We never heard her complain,
We never heard her express fear.
We never heard her question her faith in God.
For years, no matter where I was living, I would always return
on Memorial Day to visit my mom’s grave in
that old, overgrown cemetery in the West Virginia hills.
One Memorial Day, I suddenly realized something I had not before.
My mother never has lain deep in that cold, stony ground--
She forever lies in the sweetest, Godliest depths of her children's hearts,
She is still watching over us just like she always did,
and, because she is always with us,
We need never go back.
FIRST PLACE WINNER
Written on March 28, 2021
For the “Mother” Contest
Sponsored by Constance La France
January 17, 1961
"We pray," he said
"that people of all faiths
all races, all nations..
will come to live
together in a peace
guaranteed by
the binding force
of mutual respect
and love."
“…in a nationally televised speech, Dwight D. Eisenhower addresses the American people for the last time as president. Expressing ideas that seem prophetic in retrospect, Eisenhower offered his fears and hopes for the future, warning against the unfettered growth of the "military-industrial complex," as he coined it, and calling for diplomacy, restraint, and compassion in dealing with future crises with the Soviet Union. Despite his sadness that peace was not in sight, the great Allied commander offered [the above] a closing prayer to the world from America.”
Dwight D. Eisenhower, a heroic general in World War Two
Elected thirty-fourth President of the USA in 1952
Fondly remembered as an American Golden Age
His era had its fair share of turbulence and rage
on both the domestic and international stage
In Ike's first term Senator Joe McCarthy ruled the roost
witch-hunting alleged Commie sympathizers
accusing them of giving the USSR a boost
Then after Ike's landslide re-election
racial politics veered in an ugly direction
Ike sent Federal troops to an Arkansas high school in September of 1957
to enforce desegregation, the law of the land--by judicial fiat was he driven
With the Soviet Union Ike opted for containment, not confrontation
choosing to condemn, but not to stop, the USSR's Hungarian invasion
When Russia's first satellite launch, Sputnik
drove the American new media ballistic
Ike calmly launched NASA and stayed optimistic
A man of deeds over words, Ike was a classic conservative
Limited spending plus tax cuts, his prinicipled preservatives
Before leaving office, Ike warned us
about massive military spending --
in tandem with rising budget deficits
our fiscal freedom would soon be ending
In hindsight, we can see that Ike clearly was right
to stress the perils of unbridled military might
By the time prescient Ike passed away in 1969
Americans were protesting Vietnam* ~ or in its jungles dying
*the War in Vietnam
It isn’t the voice of Aristotle, Plato, Shakespeare or Anton Chekhov riding down red square. It isn’t the voice of Adolf Hitler rumbling underground or Dwight D. Eisenhower building construction in the town.
It is not the voice of Woodrow Wilson, Ron De Santis, Ragan or Trump shouting from the podium. It is not the voice of Barack Obama, King Charles the III, Hillary Clinton, Theresa May, Nicola Sturgeon, Hallie Jackson, or policeman Righty Righty, running around the town on his European motorbike issuing traffic tickets from left to right.
It is the voice of reason crying out from the slump. It is the voice the you hardly hear and it is a voice that you hardly can bear. The morning whispers and the evening shouters speed through the town shouting out a message where destiny is bound and Greek philanthropist with money to spear rebuild the culture to reestablish the age of reasoning. But not too many people embrace it.
It’s contextual and it’s deep, and it put the paparazzi to sleep in a cage beneath the ground constructed with a long corridor stretching across six countries border and the center of the post is about to explode it’s the voice of reason baked in a can waiting for the conscious one to settle the squirms.
I don’t know what you are hearing and what you are currently sharing, you can either reason with sense or you can sleep with cats, dogs and lions in the den. The tiger and the baboon are waiting for you and Giraffe with its long neck is watching you but the voice of reason is listening to you.
There are some sixteen century markings on the Vatican chart and it is written in tiny markings, you have use a magnifying glass to read them, it is the voice of reason speaking to you and it is the voice of reason telling you what to do. Reason with the voice; try to understand it and you will know which way to roll the dice. The voice of reason does not lie; It is the voice of reason on which you must rely.
At one time eight different Native America Indian Tribes lived in peace,
In the state of Kansas, sharing buffalo, shared lands with no lease.
The Iowa, Chippewa, Delaware, Kansas, Osage, Pawnee and Kickapoo,
Shared venison, and fresh cool streams with the Wyandotte too.
Animals found in my yard today like the snake, raccoon, opossum and fox,
Were here along with the iris, daisy, dandelion, wild raspberries so chock.
On the California gold rush trail, plenty of settlers were injured or killed.
As treaties by the government were continually broken, considered nilled.
The Kansas-Nebraska Act signed by President Pierce in eighteen fifty-four,
Stated the colonists could decide if the immediate area would be slave or more.
Kansas was one of the main battlegrounds of the Civil War
With many free staters and slavers lying dead on the floor.
The “free staters” caused a ruckus, to try to get slavery abolished.
But it would be four more years before that idea got polished.
Wheat, potatoes, corn, soybean, zinc, coal and salt, assets of late.
President Dwight D. Eisenhower, made us proud of our state.
Women got the right to vote in nineteen twelve, check the archives.
Reluctantly, but we wanted to go back to sleeping with our wives.
It’s a state with the best barbeque, and Kansas City is a cultural delight.
Come on down to visit; we will welcome you easily and leave on a light.
Written: 9/05/2019
Contest: Your Best Rhyme Poem
Sponsor: Tania Kitchin
Why I think it should place: I had to do a lot of research to pen this poem,
and I am extremely proud of it.
President Dwight D. Eisenhower
An uncommon tower of power --
Softly he spoke and unerringly
Used military force sparingly