To Dr. Arthur Foff

(San Francisco State University)

You could have easily stepped
out of a Sam Spade detective novel,
cigarette dangling from the corner
of your mouth and wind tossed hair,
a hard-nosed reporter
who wrote deep and dramatic prose.
Eudora Welty proclaimed
you the darkest artist
in American literature.

Turning to teaching, you became
mentor to a new generation
of emerging writers,
paring down Henry James eloquence
to the bare-boned craftsmanship
of a modern Hemingway.
The faint-hearted
did not survive your tutorage.

Your death diminished a part of me,
but your wisdom still winds itself
around my pen as I continue to struggle,
not letting agents, publishers or critics
silence my words, for you taught me
that “perseverance prevails,”
and your motto has become my motto.

Ruth Wildes Schuler

Published on American Asian Poetry Site
A wonderful array of poems published here.

ON LOOKING BACK AT THE SALEM WITCH TRIALS

Sarah Good smoked
a pipe when she could,
a nasty habit
which lead to no Good.

Russian Royal Family

I read in a magazine that at last the remains of the two missing bodies of the Russian Royal Family have been found. These are the Czarvich and one of the royal princesses. They were found about 200 feet away from the other bodies of the Royal Family.

Sea Turtle Story

I heard an interesting story on the radio this week. There is only one specialized hospital in the world that studies sea turtles.
I think it is in Key West, USA. A large sea turtle swam up to the dock of this hospital, walked up the plank and entered the emergency room. It is the only known case where a turtle checked himself into a hospital. The turtle had a serious sea turtle disease which is now being treated by the veterinarians there.

MEMORIAL DAY

This year, Daddy,
I make no journey
to a stone
to place blossoms
above bones.
Rather I send you words
in the wind
to shake the sleeping world
and pull loneliness
out of the shattered ruins.

Your reply flies by
in the form of a blue jay
against the sky
and settles in the stretch
of my cat's paws
across this motionless day,
moving it into a rhythm
of love remembered.