Ruth Wildes Schuler’s novel, THE TURBULENT TIDE: A Historical Novel Of The Russian Revolution is now available.
ISBN13 Hardcover 978-1-4535-8763-8 $29.99
ISBN13 Softcover; 978-1-4535-8762-1 $19.99
ISBN13 eBook: 978-1-4535-8764-5 $9.99

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The Turbulent Tide is the story of Katrina Kazakinova, an eight-year-old orphan whose parents are killed in the revolution of 1905. She is sent to live with her Uncle, Ivan Kozakov, the Count of Usadiba Na Holme and his family, whom she has never met. Finding she is unwanted by her aunt, she flees in the woods where she meets a peasant boy, Peter Sovinsky, who befriends her. However, upon learning that she is an aristocrat, he explains that they will not be allowed to be friends, but a bond has been formed.
Three men fall in love with Katrina and they all have an impact on her life. All the characters are swept up in the terror of the First World War, the Great Revolution and the famine of the 1920’s that follow. The horror of the events affects all the characters in the book, including the evil Rasputin and Czar Nicholas and his family. Their deaths and disposal of their remains are all portrayed. The war, and then both sides of the revolution are documented. Those that Katrina loves are on opposite sides and she is torn between those she cares for.
The elegant lifestyle of the aristocratic Kozakov family with their elaborate ball and picnics are contrasted with the humble hard working existence of the peasant Sovinsky family. All of the characters’ suffer upheaval with some losing their lives. Katrina is driven to travel the breath of the vast Soviet Union and is cast into the dungeon of the dreaded Cheka. She constantly fights to survive the wrath of the turbulent tide sweeping over Russia that leaves nothing the same.

INDIVIDUALISM

To the old of the new world’s worth;
For each age is a dream that is dying;
Or one that is coming to birth.

Irish poet Arthur O’Shaughnessy (1844-1881)
From ODE

It was not the timid-hearted that moved civilization forward
during the ages. Rather it was the individualistic person
with the courage to think and be different. It was the individual
who refused to be ruled by king, czar or dictator,
who boarded leaky ships and sailed into the unknown,
into ferocious tempests while living on half-starving rations.
Longing for freedoms of all sorts, these freedom-seeking people
populated new worlds, dealt with harsh temperatures and hostile inhabitants.

In America it was men like George Washington, Abraham Lincoln,
and Ronald Reagan, who proclaimed to Mr. Gorbachev –
“Tear down this wall!”
In India it was individuals like Buddha, Tagore and Gandhi
that lighted the way.
Men cannot be free when a government makes all their decisions.
It takes many different kinds of free individuals – scientists, writers,
philosophers, explorers, politicians, generals, teachers and doctors
to advance us with new technology and ideas.

I plead for men everywhere to be free to follow their dreams.
May their eyes rise to the moon and the stars, and may they listen
to the mystery in the winds blowing their thunderous ever-eternal truths.

Ruth Wildes Schuler
Publish in POETRY WORLD, JUNE 2010 INDIA

Glenn Beck

Adored mentor for millions,
you are like an eternal lighthouse
beaming forth a constant flow
of knowledge and truth,
a modern knight without armor
riding forth to slay
the dragons of destruction.
Slings of verbal abuse assault you,
hurled by the jealous,
and those guilty of chipping
away at the very foundations
of our great nation.
Hopefully the aura of love,
and appreciation from those that you
have enlightened will shield you
from the barbs of hatred hurled
by the anti-American conspirators.
Courage is one of your names!

FEBRUARY’S CHILD

After that damn bastard tumor
crushed your brain, Daddy,
I could only take Honest Abe of the homely face
off our wall and hang him on mine.

Courageous to your final hour,
I could never return all the love
that you gave me.
You were the richest poor man
I ever knew, and I have tried to live
with the vision of your pain-filled
blue eyes, but it hasn’t been easy –
Like the sword smelted out of shape in a forge,
I have been hammered and banged
into a new mold and pushed toward-
“…the great task remaining…”

Daddy, you taught me to love President Lincoln,
and I, born the day before him,
found his footsteps wide to follow—
But his stern face now on my study wall,
reminds me of your history lessons—
5,500 dead lie buried at Gettysburg, and we all have a limited time…
We cannot waste it crying about our losses and broken dreams.
Bullets and tumors lie waiting around the corner
and there are no promises for tomorrow…
There isn’t even a promise of a tomorrow.

Rather that we be—
“Dedicated to the great task remaining before us…”
And it isn’t easy to let the hammering forces
bend us into a stronger cast…
You, my backwoods Hero,
and you, my flesh and blood father
insist rather – That we remember—
“Those dead shall not have died in vain…”
And my pen quivers as I push it across this present day,
not daring to tell anyone, Daddy,
that Lincoln’s grim face has relaxed of late.
Sometimes, he even smiles at me.

Ruth Wildes Schuler

NIGHT OF THE BROKEN MOON

Still that nightingale
that dares sing
in my garden.
Does he not know
that my love died tonight?
My love lying
encased in woven lace,
covering the cranberry waves
pouring forth from
the slash within his skin,
and where do I even begin
to express my sorrow,
record the dimming
of the sun, and the crumbling
mountains on the moon?
War has wounded my warrior,
broken my heart like his.
I have no answers,
for I know not even
the questions that float
in the air against
a vague backdrop
of a vanished future.
The light diminishes, silver beams
fade, and I see a bronze coffin
in the distance. It floats nearer.
Is that reality shrieking like sirens,
or is it only my screams,
drowning out this obtrusive nightingale?

Ruth Wildes Schuler
Salopeot Spring 2010 (England)

POETIC TREK

I have traveled the earth trudging among
the broken statues of Easter Island,
listening to the children of Pitcairn Island
sing hymns, felt the icy blast of Dutch Harbor winds
and swam in the Black Sea.

On my poetic search I climbed the Great Wall of China,
rode a camel near the great pyramid of Giza,
walked within the walls of the Kremlin,
through the barb-wire horror of Dachau and observed
the blood stained walls, ovens and bins of suitcases,
shoes, and false arms and legs in Auschwitz.

I saw the ice floes of Greenland,
the Monkey Dancers of Bali, the Berlin Wall,
the ruins of Dresden, the Komodo Dragon,
the glaciers of Alaska and many churches and castles.
I saw Mongolian cowboys riding camels,
and ate the rare fish of Lake Baikal

Always searching. I saw joy, sorrow and fear
among this planet’s people. Russians were afraid
to speak to us, while the Chinese wanted to practice
their English now taught on TV instead of the previous Russian.
I ate a feast of all the world, and it all mixed to form
this persona, this person, this poet, and this poem.

RUTH WILDES SCHULER

Thoughts To Ponder

The economy is so bad,
So what can we really do?
It’s like waiting for the man
upstairs to drop the other shoe.

Ruth Wildes Schuler

--------------

First, I must put something in context. America is unique in the history of the world. In the history of the world, whenever there has been a war, the nation that is victorious has taken land from the nation that has been defeated – land has always been the basis of wealth on our planet.
Only one nation in history, and this during the last century, was willing to lay down hundreds of thousands of lives and take no land in its victory – no land from Germany, no land from Japan, America. America is unique in the history of the word for its willingness to sacrifice so many lives of its precious sons and daughters for liberty, not solely for itself but also for its friends.

Shimon Peres, Israel’s former Prime Minister and President to Mitt Romney, former Massachusetts Governor
and 2008 Presidential Candidate


The only land that America took after World War II was what was needed to bury our dead.

Former US Secretary of State Colin Powell


TRADITION

Where once the oriental warrior
exposed the back of his neck
to the sword as a gesture of peace;
he now merely bows from the waist.

Ruth Wildes Schuler

Quotes

Farewell Brave Warrior!

Practice rather than preach. Make of your life an affirmation, defined by your ideas, not the negation of others. Dare to the leval of your capability then go beyond to a higher level.
Alexander Haigh Jr.

Diplomacy
The art of telling someone to go to hell,
and having them look forward to the trip.


Never be afraid to try something new,
Remember, amateurs built the ark.
Professionals built the Titanic.

PHILOSOPHICAL PONDERING ON POWER

The times are chaotic
and the world is changing
all around me and I
feel swept up in the confusion.
False promises are spread out
like marmalade on toast,
and the innocent believe
because they are unaware
of the half-truths uttered
by the false prophets.
And I, a poet am not sure
how to counteract
the false veneers worn
by these charismatic deceivers.
Some nights, I cannot sleep
pondering where can I
begin to deal with
the evil of these men.
I look to the heavens,
but nothing falls but rain.

Ruth Wildes Schuler

Message To Obama

No president in the history of this country has ever sealed his educational records until you were elected to office. What is it that you are hiding? Some offered the notion that you came to the country as a foreign student and are not really a citizen of this country, and therefore not eligible to be president.
Since I heard you bragging that you took courses under as many Marxist professor as possible in college, and now have yourself surrounded with communist czars, I suspect it is more likely that you were involved in Marxist and other radical groups and didn’t want the people of this country to know your radical beliefs. I think they have become aware of them though.
My ancestors dumped the English tea in the Boston Harbor when they felt they were taxed unjustly. Once again the people in this country are rebelling with the tea party movement protesting your unjust taxations. You need to listen to the people in this great democratic country. You will not succeed in making it into a communist regime. Our power was built on capitalism and freedom. It will prevail. Listen to the people’s voices! We are not mindless peasants, but political knowledgeable citizens still filled with the Sprit of 1776.

Ruth Wildes Schuler

The Leader

It was not the best of times,
but the worse of times in the nation.
The economy had collapsed
and unemployment was rampant,
but then HE appeared.
He had charisma and spoke
with such elegance. His words
seduced the crowds and
blurred their vision.
He promised the world.
He gave them hope,
so in submissive
innocence and ignorance,
they fell in line behind him
like sheep going to the slaughter.
The people were not visionaries
and could not see
the ruin lying ahead.
It has been said that those
who do not learn the lessons
of history will be doomed
to repeat them.

Sophie

You have died leaving
a hollow hole in my heart.
Your portrait is mirrored
against the fading twilight.
President John F. Kennedy stated,
“Life isn’t fair,” and yours
certainly wasn’t.
With all your family killed
in World War II, you lived
in the bombed-out ruins
of Germany as a child,
Hungry and without warm clothing,
the Americans came and gave you
food and a warm coat, and you
decided you would come to
America someday. At fourteen,
you worked in a factory to
save the money. However your life
in America did not fulfill
your dreams, and it ended with
Parkinson’s and lung cancer
that ate into your spine and bones.
A good part of the world believe
in reincarnation. Having paid all
your bad karma in this life,
I see you returning as
a German Princess,
shrouded in fine clothes,
an enchanting smile on your face,
surrounded with an adoring
crowd of admirers. You will have riches,
but I already have had mine,
the richness and beauty of your love
and the warmth of your friendship.
Travel well my friend on your new journey.
Perhaps we will meet again.
Destiny remains the unknown factor.