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Links to the Complete Set of Poems of Rainbows & Shadows
Poems Written by Bobby Matherne
Published in various DIGESTWORLD Issues with Associated Photos
First published in 1995 Hardback Book of Poetry




Preface

My heart leaps up when I behold
A rainbow in the sky.

William Wordsworth

What is your substance, whereof are you made,
That millions of strange shadows on you tend?

William Shakespeare, Sonnet 53

Why rainbows and shadows? One reminds us of joyful occasions and the other of things that go bump in the night. First, rainbows.

In 1995 I stood in the open doorway of my garage before driving to work on my last day before retirement from the Waterford 3 Nuclear Power Plant, and I saw a beautiful double rainbow in the morning sky before me. My heart lept up like Wordsworth's when I saw that omen. I remembered that the source of the rainbow is in my heart, and was in the heart of everyone who took the time to observe a rainbow that morning. We each saw a different rainbow, and each one we saw was truly our own rainbow.

In 2015 a double rainbow appeared as I looked out my garage door in the morning of the same day I celebrated twenty years of working full-time as a writer, publisher, photographer, cartoonist, and poet. The beat goes on . . .

Likewise, each shadow we encounter is truly our own shadow, created by the materialistic stuff of our world blocking the light of the Sun. Shadows are the dark colors of the artist's pallette of our lives, without which there would be no texture, no structure, no light. As I reviewed my poems for this volume, I found some were naturally rainbows and some naturally shadows, and I separated them into one section called Rainbows and one called Shadows. My wife Del likes me to read to her one Rainbow followed by one Shadow — they seem to complement each other, she says. I have put the section titles in the header to facilitate such a manner of reading.

In addition to the poem, I have included a short note (where available), which notes altogether contain a panoply of information about my poems: when they were written, what I was doing at the time, what I was reading that inspired them, and on what scrap of paper I wrote them. Poems do not "form in their own water" (as my friend Calvin said of volcanoes), but they may form in the water of ideas suggested by others and completed in some fashion by me. In gratitude, I include in many of the Notes the authors' names and sometimes a brief reference or quote of the source of the inspiration. By reading the Notes, one may readily discern my favorite authors and assorted sources of inspiration during the five-year period of writing this book.

There is an ambiguity in the phrase driving to work that leaves unspecified whether I was alone in the car at the time. Believe me, I could never think these thoughts if I were not alone in the car. Sometimes I listened to jazz on WWOZ, sometimes to classical on WWNO, and sometimes only to the thoughts of the writer of the book I was reading and my own thoughts, but always moving on. Like rainbows and shadows are always moving, so was I.

Read on.

You may have a moving experience also as you join me in my carpool of one on the highway of life. Welcome Aboard! What would you like on the radio, classical or jazz?


Introduction to Rainbows & Shadows by Peter Devine
To Play’s The Thing



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This is a Complete Set of Poems are from Bobby Matherne's 1995 book of poetry, Rainbows & Shadows, published with associated images in various DIGESTWORLD Issues. Some of the poems have explanatory notes.

1. Chapter: RAINBOWS
~~~ (Click Poem to View) ~~~~~ ~~~ (Click Poem to View) ~~~~~
        Does One Mind? College Life
       Greater Love I Am As God Created Me
       Moving Still Admission
       Yes, Todays Who Dreams the Dream?
       Inner Vent Good Mountain
       Higher Self Starseed
       All Powerful Teacher Chances Are
       Nouning Verbs New Orleans is  . . .
       Participation Mystique Mind's Fruit
       POOF! Ears to See
       Waves Teachers & Learners
       Accidents Eltricity
       Carry On Either Twist
       Bareback Rider Idyll of March: I and II
       Idyll of March: III, IV and V Idyll of March: VI and VII
       Idyll of March: VIII Idyll of March: IX
       Huh? Entropy Together
       Memories Present Matherne's Rules
       Free For All Surprise Surprise!
       The Magic Mirror Return to Chaos
       Stardust Memories Happiness Is
       The Rest of Your Light Collective Unconscious
       Roll 'Em EAT-O-TWIST Rainbow
       Something to Believe In

2. Chapter: SHADOWS

~~~ (Click Poem to View) ~~~~~ ~~~ (Click Poem to View) ~~~~~
        Shadows of Light Looking Glass
       Morning Dreams Fair Enough
       Prayer of Forgiveness Sermons in Stones
       Wordsmith Ex Post Facto
       Just In Time Age of Aquariums
       Golden Rule II At 37,000 Feet
       The Seed Juggling Act
       Levatus de Profundo In Praise of Procrastination
       Success! A Vacant Lot
       To Sleep . . . The Coercion Bell
       God Is Dead Gatekeepers
       Paid in Full I Used to Love You
       The Game Plan I Met A Man
       $ign of Cooperation Shirts & Symbols
       Magic Arithmetic The No Chuckholes Way
       Soaring Free A Content Model
       The Problem is the Solution A Fish Tale
       Art Cycle of Creation
       Tacitus Via No Innocent Thoughts
       No No No No No No No Peace Breakers
       Sacrificial Whine New Responses
       Guilt By Association Relationship
       Slight of Mind Something Dewing
       Children of My Will Tales of the Dead
       Feedback Skin Tight
       DRUGS CZAR-US Thy Name is Me
       Human Limit Writing About
       Polyester Velour Leader
       Meta Meeting Haiku
       Yiddish Alphabet It's Understandable
       Baseball Mantra Koan Heads
       Safe! Quite, Please