Played soccer in Baltimore for a long time in 50's through the 70's, and still remain a fan of the game.  When I played, the season was in the winter, and watching the women win the gold in the Olympics brought this old piece back from the deep recesses of my memory.

THE GOALIE

By Fred Ruark

8/8/1974

Standing tip toe in the cold soggy mud

Squinting against the icy rain

Trying to follow what’s going on

At the far end of the pitch

Icicles form on the net at your back

Your fingertips freezing inside your big gloves

A solitary warrior in a rectangular frame

Part of the team ….. but lonely, alone

You play the same game but abide different rules

You can’t wear the colors that get the fans cheering

With the game in front of you

You’re the defensive boss

You’re the rear guard, the last ditch defender

When all others fail, you’re on stage

Decide – Hold your line or charge the ball?

Decide and act – To hesitate is to fail

The goat or the hero with no stops between

Your defenders split and a striker breaks through

He’s onside, you tense to repel the attack

Don’t move too soon, but don’t wait

The rain in your face sets your eyeballs on fire

The ball looks the same as the mud

It’s come down to this one on one – sudden death

You meet the attack with attack off your line

You make yourself big to reduce the shot’s angles

The outside of his left boot strikes the ball hard

The ball curls left just touching your hand

Not enough … you hear the ice in your net shatter like glass

The attacker takes off in a high victory leap

Team mates pull him down and pile on.

Your team mates, dejected, retreat from the pitch

You lie there alone in the mud

LAMENT FOR IRISH OAKS
JULY 2012

Erin lies barren of oaks

Ghosts of the druids are weeping

Oaks of Eire are globally strewn

At the bottom of all the oceans where English warships sailed

Sunk by pirates of the Spanish Main

By cannon balls of French frigates

And corsairs off Morocco

And Yankees at Fort McHenry

Storms at the Horn stopped some doing 'transportation'

Short of their mission to Van Demman's land

Some of her oaks remain in Alba

Lining barrels of Scotch whiskey

Some in England as girders

Of Wren's great buildings

Rowans and Hollies now thrive in the sun

No longer in understory of the great oaks

Hills of Ireland, now meadows of green

Grazing sheep where red deer once ran.

Generations await the great oaks return

"Keep away from people who try to belittle your dreams.


 Small people always do that, but the really great ones 


make you feel that you too, can become great."

Mark Twain

An interesting quote from James Lane Allen: 


Man's rise or fall, success or failure, happiness or unhappiness depends on his attitude... a man's attitude will create the situation he imagines.

Been dealing with a case of 'the block'.  Put writing on the shelf to deal with health issues in the family.  Trying to ramp up to regain momentum, cranked out about 600-700 words, and some how lost them attempting to save.  Don't know what key stroke I made to do the damage, but it was a momentum killer.  Back to ground zero trying to restart.  Looked at the file of old pieces and came across the following:

Staring at a blank page

Awaiting inspiration

Millions of issues

Demand prosaic comment

When the ideas start to flow

Will the words be worth the ink?

Will they ever touch

The people with the problems?

Or does drafted metered verse

Merely free you of your guilt?

Through your poems

Do you turn your back on real life?

Wrote that back in 1971 and rereading it convinced me that for a long time my writing was an escape.  But now I am convinced that I have something to say.  There are parts of history that have been obscured which need to be addressed.  Indeed issues that"demand prosaic comment.  So screw the loss of 700 words!  They were lost in the computer, but they are still in my skull vault, and will be recaptured and inserted into chapter 17.

Been otherwise occupied in life, but now anxious to get back in the swing.  Writing more frequently, and posting to see who is out there who might have an interest in Irish history (circa1633-1700)

Playing Dress Up at the Celtic Society Medieval  Feast