Tallmadge Circle Chapter

 

A)     The Circle Spokes Of Education

B)      The Circle

C)      Tallmadge Circle Once Upon A Rhyme In Ohio’s Miracle HeArt Rhyme

D)      All My Life's A Tallmadge Circle

E)      Tallmadge Circle Spoken Spokes

F)      Tallmadge Circle

G)     Circle Tallmadge High Words

H)     "The Circle" of Love

I)        Life Is A Tallmadge Circle

J)       Tallmadge High Graduating Dream

K)      Circle Of Love

L)     "The Circle" of Love

M)     Life is a Tallmadge Revolving High (School)

N)      Rotating Tallmadge Circle

O)     Tallmadge High 1966 Graduate

P)      The Circle HeArt Baring Poet Tree

Q)     Tallmadge High Golden Graduations

 

 

 

 

 

(A)

The Circle Spokes Of Education

 

Around and around enlightened education,

Learning circumnavigates to open minds,

From within the hub of diverse knowledge,

Spokes stretch out gems in every direction.

 

Some Americans will try to break spokes,

Where the HeArt of Literature lies morbid,

Mortal wounded, To Be Dead Society poets,

Wherein HeArtMosphere - The Circle hibernates.

 

Wherein a Science spoke is flattened in seven days.

A well-rounded wheel flattens cerebral exploration.

But Thinkers will always reach beyond limitations.

Facts are that a world evolves - around revolving words.

 

Around and around the HeArt of the Western Reserve,

An American Dream of Camelot rode around those spokes.

Where each path was well traveled amid treaded tires.

What direction will Once Upon A Rhyme create Poetry?

 

Oh the pain of that 1966 circle graduation of Selective Service,

Choosing to enlist and not To Be the Draft - some wealth evaded.

That the Draft of War’s wrath weathers wrinkled Veterans,

Where the napkin verse vibrates the core chill of existence.

 

Around and around the words circle as hurricane force PTSD,

Poet Terminated Stressed Deposition dew nail, ink stain pain.

Oh, To Be Knots in taunt tight chokeholds - Camelot’s gone.

The Bitter Twitters reality that live is dealt - a trump card.

 

Why is it that some seek to destroy from within United States?

Oh can you see, Star Spangled Banner, traversing every direction.

Hear the poetic verse in being a Veteran Terminated for Poetry.

God Bless an Educated America, the hub of America must have -

The Circle Spokes Of Education.

 

(B)

The Circle

 

It is a Uni-Que place of Western Reserve

Like an eight spoke Connecticut wheel

With a city hub circle compass commons

Where a Church and Old City Hall stand.

Trees that tower in Northern Ohio breezes.

 

Around, and around it, residents grow up,

Merging counter clockwise around The Circle.

Coming inward eastward on West Ave one may

Go outward North, or perhaps travel South Avenues.

That there were four more spokes in between.

 

Many a trip around The Circle where on the bottom half

Going to Tallmadge High and the top half returning home.

The Circle has evolved with many long time businesses.

But alas time closes memories of Lujan’s, Bumpass Drug,

Burger Chef, SOHIO, Union 76, and other special places.

 

Tallmadge High graduates move on from The Circle

Where every spoke of direction graduates them near - afar.

They traverse the world with ambitious wayward dreams.

But at times one wishes they could go around and around

The spokes of time to come back home to The Circle.

 

(C)

Tallmadge Circle Once Upon A Rhyme In Ohio’s Miracle HeArt Rhyme

 

Spin The Circle around and around - about time.

Where it rotates times in counter clockwise traffic.

To be this Tallmadge High Blue Devil graduate,

Remembering the old Junior High on North Ave.

Where North meets the Church within a divine Circle.

 

Oh, spin one way back in rhyme to see Luyan’s Big Boys

That small Dairy Queen stand that N.E. Burger Chef,

And that ironic A&W Drive In, of rotating muscle cars.

But things change that even Bumpas has evaporated.

Not sure if Henry Bierce Hardware is still in business.

 

Tallmadge with East, West, North, South spokes.

Add Southwest between South and West,

Southeast between South and East,

Northwest between North and West,

And Northeast between North and East.

Concentrating upon Tallmadge Circle’s center hub.

 

1966 High School graduation onto Selective Service Draft.

Enlisting to keep from being drafted, one is rushed to serve.

That 1966’s class, before and after, Blue Devils went overseas,

To leave that Tallmadge Circle behind, to be scared in war’s wrath.

Some never came back whole, some half there, PTSD remembering -

War is Hell.

 

Oh, dew turn back Rhyme onto an A&W Drive In, beside Tallmadge Circle.

To be Camelot dreams in Once Upon A Rhyme Knights did rule love.

America upon a divine American Dream that education built futures.

Blue Devils could write alight skies sparkling trails away from Tallmadge.

No matter, which direction, one would attain Ohio’s Miracle HeArt Rhyme.

 

(D)

All My Life's A Tallmadge Circle

 

Been riding around circles, all my life.

But there is The Circle in Ohio’s HeArt,

Of charisma called The Tallmadge Circle.

Where it compass spokes, goes all directions.

 

Since elementary school life revolved,

Around a round, counter cw traffic circle.

Wherein its hub a Church and City Hall,

Share the charm, as museum treasures.

 

Wagon wheels with horse and buggy,

Rutted The Circle, long ago, pack dirt trails,

As Model T automobiles treated tire tracks,

To move slow, to the middle, then out.

 

Packed rock became asphalt layered.

The first school still stands on North Ave.

As schools shifted around The Circle.

In educating Tallmadge High students

To circumnavigate a world from spokes.

 

Around and around school buses traverse

That live is about traveling wandering circles.

For in every direction, those challenges await,

By branching around that circle knowledge,

We become an enlightened encircled nation.

 

Driving into Tallmadge Circle, one learns to;

Ease in, slow, but be assertive with caution.

Then cease an opening, going to the middle.

In life, one may want to stay in the middle,

But like a Tallmadge Circle, one disengages.

 

But The Circle will always spin the HeArt. 

 

(E)

Tallmadge Circle Spoken Spokes

 

Tallmadge High graduating spoken words,

Spin around and around a moving traffic circle,

Wherein from every direction they will depart

From the spinning HeArt of Ohio, as graduates

Tackling the world with Benjamin Tallmadge insight.

 

Tallmadge Circle has revolved and evolved in change,

But some things remain Tallmadge Circle historic.

Like a 1911 school dwelling on North Avenue

The Church with the tall steeple that stands so proud,

As testament to the Connecticut Western Reserve.

 

So many times cursed for its congestion,

But loved for its inner circle vegetation.

How many times does one traverse the Circle

As Tallmadge Students seeking knowledge

Every year graduating from these spokes.

 

This Ole Ben poet did depart in sixty six,

A Young man feeling the Draft of Vietnam

That from a West Avenue up Tallmadge Hill

A father dropped a son off in flowing tears,

Soon from Akron to Cleveland onto San Antonio.

 

Path from Basic Training to Biloxi, onto a Vietnam Theater,

A Theater that some Tallmadge grads did not make it home,

But arrived flag draped to hear the TAPS in a Tallmadge salute,

Others came back home with a gap void inside a soul,

Driving around and around a Tallmadge Circle with tears.

 

Coming home, you will find Tallmadge Circle the same,

Except it is now a museum piece of those past memories.

That one remembers fondly those spins around Lujan’s

And onto that A&W Root Beer stand of shiny muscle cars,

When all too soon, we depart, and its fades in nostalgia.

 

Been many a year writing about an American Dream,

But the spokes of Tallmadge, dew seam, to awaken Poetry

Wherein the verse it revolves around and around smiles.

That one wishes, they could take, a trip around The Circle,

From Time to Time wandering a spoke to a Six Point

Decision upon paths less taken stanza sprouting buds.

 

Does one remember:

West Avenues Soap Box Tallmadge Hill,

A Northwest Tallmadge Spring swimming hole,

A South Ave cemetery of Memorial Day band marches

Going North to Tallmadge Central Junior High, now gone,

East to the old Tallmadge High School graduation,

That Southwest funeral home for my parents,

Southeast Tallmadge Post office and Henry Bierce,

Northeast to Carter’s Black Angus and Kent State.

 

Spin me a tale that weathered this Tallmadge Poet

Into a hundred dollar image of America’s circling past.

How Tallmadge graduates would spin the written spoke

Around the world roulette in spoken spoke stories

That started long ago upon a Tallmadge High graduation.

 

Rolling terrain of Tallmadge does expands minds

That what was Tallmadge, now North Akron,

What was Brimfield, now part of Tallmadge proper.

That Lujans, one hears lays deserted of desserts -

Remember that strawberry pie piled high in whipped Crème

That Crème de la Crème swept sweet in swollen eyes graduations.

 

Been fifty years since a Tallmadge High Blue Devil diploma,

Upon next year’s June spring of 2016 High School grads,

Where fifty years from then, with this poet in the ground

Another Tallmadge Poet will stand testament to time

That the Class of 2016 rhyme will write the word spokes

That revolve around a Tallmadge Circle

In the HeArtMosphere as Tallmadge – Ohio Grads.

 

(F)

Tallmadge Circle

 

The city bears spoken compass directions,

Wherein students graduate into diversity.

That takes them around a revolving world,

Going to school or places, how many times

Had they traversed Tallmadge Circle?

 

One remember a Red Barn and Dairy Queen,

A Lujan’s that turned in a Big Boy Drive in

And that nostalgic ‘66 A&W Root Beer stand

Where muscle cars would go from Lujan’s to A&W.

Driving mom’s Dart - like it was a Ferrari or Vette.

 

How soon after graduation, I would been in that Draft,

That one enlisted or awaited those marching SS orders

That many Tallmadge Graduates did not come back,

To ride around that Traffic Circle, they called home.

That today one wanders, if there is a Circle memorial?

 

But one remembers Memorial Days upon a parade

That started on one spoke and ended up South.

Where the grave yard used to lie beside RR tracks.

Those tracks, I have been told are gone with the wind,

As a Bumpas Drug Store did finally had a closing day.

 

So many question like U.S. Stoneware and Henry Bierce Co.

What has survived after a 1966 Graduation into a Vietnam Theater?

Past parent memories of that Tallmadge funeral home on Southwest.

That home upon Nottingham behind Leppo’s that sold farm tractors,

The tractors are gone, are there any farms left inside Tallmadge?

 

So many memories revolve around and round a Church in a Circle

That City Hall shared a place with the police in there on that Circle.

Remember a donut place, where those police digested delights.

How the names fade in and out in things remembered then forgotten.

The sleet, the snow that ice frozen thoughts, in fond Tallmadge remembrance.

 

Coming on that Fifty in June 2016, when one could not afford Kent State

That in irony after a January Honorable Discharge one would head home.

That upon my birthday in April 30^th of that year, we invaded Cambodia.

Where Circle service stations cease selling flammable fluids in containers.
That three days later the shots rang out from a Kent State active campus.

 

That this hurt made a poet arise up from those ROTC ashes that cried,

Torn between two sides being torn up inside, “Why live ammunition?”

The Poetry TSD has flowed ever since as this fountain in Young verse.

That it seems to question the premonitions and prefabrication of war,

That one must be censured silent as a American War Veteran hears

“We need troops on the ground.” Then To Be Terminated for Poetry.

 

Can you feel this hellhole quagmire ingrained sinkhole called a heart,

When one feels grave works fall inside, to suffocate a whole life stagnant.

What was the obscenity America, read ALL my Liberal word flow outputs.

It is not about a Tallmadge High poet that was not too popular a fellow.

But it is about opening up Tallmadge High minds to then challenge the world.

 

That from every spoke will come the diversity of expansive knowledge.

Where no matter, what direction, these students take, they will succeed.

But never follow the worn ruts of a Tallmadge High ‘66 Blue Devil graduate

Put on your shoes with independent treads and claim one’s owned destiny.

For the Poet Philosopher Thinker Teacher, should follow student’s ideas.

 

That sometime taking a path from a revolving roulette Traffic Circle,

You do not meet forks or crossroad, you hit a darn, six street traffic decision.

I do not know how Frost would have chosen the best one to traverse upon.

But after graduation, there are many six, seven, eight points and more,

But do not fallow, following flat, “behind” others with a face in disappointment.

Make a trail with your initials, and tackle better than Tallmadge football.

 

I remember that with Coach David Young, who had this poet’s name.

In 1965, I believe, we made it to the State Finals and placed second.

Alas as part of the Metro League in football then, Tallmadge did not excel.

Remember as a kid, I wanted to race the Soap Box Derby, To Be somebody.

So many broken heart branches that sometimes one looks back solemn,

And cries.

 

(G)

Circle Tallmadge High Words

 

What words encircle, thy spoke words

That East, West, North, and South encircle.

In-between traverse routes around the world.

How many times do we go around, “The Circle.”

 

What was Western Reserve Academy long gone.

Alas, education does center around knowledge.

Where upon Tallmadge High graduation cycles,

Student traversed the World from “The Circle.”

 

Traffic counter clockwise driver’s side wheel movement,

Mirrors living amid clockwise passenger beside treatments.

Looking forward, does one reflect back - photo negative

Memories, moving forward timed, around “The Circle.”

 

Oh, heartbeats of mine, dew spread thy spoken words.

Where poetry encircles a world adrift words of circle rhyme.

Oh, dance my heart amidst terse sailing Free Verse whorls.

Spin thy spry Blue Devil mascot soul blessing “The Circle.”

 

Been in every direction from Ohio’s Compass HeArtLand.

Traversed free amidst American HeArtMosphere Dreamland.

Felt the Graduation Draft that enlisted a grad to overseas.

While grads age, the spokes stay still, around “The Circle.”

 

Lot has happened, things evolve in Earth revolving revolutions.

That dawn to dusk to moonlight daybreak season change time.

Future seconds of elementary schools, evolve to alumni events.

What was anew thy High School, will be gone, around “The Circle.”

 

God what if, what if one could plant, a Poet Tree, within “The Circle.”

Where every one who traversed “The Circle” could plant their leaf.

Oh Circle Poet Tree, spread peace around your HeArtFelt spokes,

Tallmadge and America graduate Literature in cohesive diplomacy

From HeArt’s Universal Understanding - alight God’s “Inner Circle.”

 

(H)
"The Circle" of Love

Life is an evolving Circle

Where we change going around it

Where every day new trails flow

In and out Life's Circle

 

(I)
Life Is A Tallmadge Circle

 

Life is a Tallmadge Circle

Where people enter, adrift one way

And do depart. alight another path

With our first direction, we bear

Our first breath passageway

Where we enter “The Circle of Life.”

 

Traffic rotates around outer right edges,

Traversing clock wise passenger wheel sides.

That counter inside, driver side movement.

Where life does mirror between two eyes.

Flipped upon perceptions, amid rear view reflections.

 

Life revolves around Tallmadge Circle

 

J)
Tallmadge High Graduating Dream

 

Can we not dream among our words divine power

Raising our spirits upon the heavens as a flower?

Blossoming within our heartbeats desires towering

With our wings spread open radiating soft showers.

 

Oh mist, refreshing the very core tremor of living insight

That a seed germinates within to blossom in creation’s sight.

Springing forth the Uni-Verse baring mind’s candlelight

Making love on canvas silk static sheets, quivers of delight.

 

Feel a pen impregnating the grain of every fibers depression

Upon the gravity of Poetry reigning down vivid impressions.

Within the miracle of God’s gift in singing verse expressions

Create the harmony that creates the melody of love’s procession.

 

Oh, Tallmadge High Graduates, climb your mountain.

 

K)

Circle Of Love

 

Hands circulating love

hugging vibrations

sensing the heart

cuddling sensation

total understanding

respecting individuality

emerging friendship

lasting all time

circle of love

growing tighter

the greatest bond.

 

L)

"The Circle" of Love

Life is an evolving Circle

Where we change going around it

Where every day new trails flow

In and out Life's Circle

 

M)

Life Is A Tallmadge Revolving High (School)

 

A round and around Tallmadge spoke education.

Overdale Elementary and old high school stadium.

Central was Tallmadge High, then my junior high.

As a new high school was built on West Avenue,

Dedicated in 1960, where males had Selective Service.

Draft before, after poet’s – 1966 Tallmadge Graduation,

Or grad Enlisted - time sent students to Vietnam.

So sad, to learn, that the new, now old Tallmadge High.

Will fall victim to an ever-revolving evolution

Amidst “The Circle” of Education.

 

N)

Rotating Tallmadge Circle

 

Life evolves around circles.

Some counter time,

While others revolve,

A round its clock wise precision.

Where seconds move minutes

That move hour hands onto days.

As years, churn around change.

What was the past, will winter.

What is new, will spring forth.

 

That upon Tallmadge Circle,

The weather changes seasons,

Where Autumn frost breath,

Winters barks lifeless branches.

Where upon a Tallmadge Spring,

The summer simmers fruition,

Once upon a Rhyming Circle.

 

Words do promote distinct eloquent elocution,

Enunciating ecstatic prose power pronunciation,

In Literary circles of revolving Literature evolution,

Wherein seeded words, dew sow germinating lines,

Writing English Declarations to sail Virtuoso Revolutions.

 

That life does navigate around spokes,

Life being a compass merry-go-round.

Thinkers traversing this wise world,

Circumnavigating different unique paths,

Leading in and out compass directions.

Life is a Tallmadge Circle.

 

Alight - The Circle of Enlightenment

Minds set adrift, Nucleus of Knowledge,

Do spread those Pillars of Education.

Freedom, Liberty and Democracy,

Amidst Free Speech Press Principles,

Rotate spokes in vivid written words,

Wherein every individual direction -

Universal understanding does evolve.

 

Each soul mind, encircles the world

Within each- To Be stellar, divinely blessed.

Not to follow, as subservient serf servants,

But lead amidst heartbeats proud existence,

Do elevate the English Poet Tree language,

Rotating around Tallmadge Circle Seasons.

 

O)

Tallmadge High 1966 Graduate

 

Tallmadge High 1966 graduate –

rotates his poetry around the world of words. Where - 

(Alight - The Circle of Enlightenment
Minds set adrift, Nucleus of Knowledge 
Do spread those Pillars of Education.
Freedom, Liberty and Democracy,
Amidst Free Speech Press Principles.
Rotate spokes in vivid written words,
Wherein every individual direction -
Universal understanding evolves.)

 

That upon paths, we reach out sometimes –

in the image of the past weathering today.

 

(Rotating Tallmadge Circle {graduate}

Life evolves around circles.
Some counter time,
While others revolve,
A round its clock wise precision.
Where seconds move minutes
That move hour hands onto days.
As years, churn around change.
What was the past, will winter.
What is new, will spring forth.)

 

That to step back in fear, is to deny your inherited heritage.

The seed will rot or flower forth your destiny.

That all is needed is a hug from humanity

that you are worth being an American Poet.

 

(That life does navigate around spokes,
Life being a compass merry-go-round. 
Thinkers traversing this wise world,
Circumnavigating different unique paths ,
Leading in and out compass directions.
Life is a Tallmadge Circle.)

 

P)

The Circle HeArt Baring Poet Tree

 

Rotating seasons bound around,

Leaves adrift lucid breeze Poet Tree.

Therein lays The Circle of Knowledge

That evolves revolves, amid spoke works.

 

Words, please dew give thee - thy poetic justice,

Deep rooted, bare dye veins, adrift deposition flows.

Ply fertile furrows that burrow dye poetic core destiny.

Bard do levitate existence, adrift lucid living, fluid flowers.

 

Bower minds, splash babbling brooks that spring sounds,

Where life encircles love, amid universal calm surroundings.

Dew bare moist, thee understanding, aloft spoken balm words

That traverse time, in-out around circles of sunlight enlightenment.

 

Engage thy Circle HeArt to bear Poet Tree bud encouragement.

Dew branch, amid wandering, in search invigorant, walking soles.

Do broach, amidst wondering, to teach inspired, words worth,

Wherein HeArtBeats, yea shall sail anew, askew twine journeys

 

Tick tock, around thee - clock wise, evolves life to wander verse sounds.

Let us lay fertile, thy world in words dyed in watercolor’s wonder rounds.

Amidst drip drop, dew dye, stained works that do seep to absorb bounded

Pages that twist turn turnstiles volumes in literary lucid Circle rebounds.

 

Q)

Tallmadge High Golden Graduations

 

Youth back springs, around The Circle,

Within what will become old - now,

But what was brand spanking new High - then.

One knew things, would gradually change,

After getting that Tallmadge Grad diploma.

 

Wear in spoken words, one evolves writ spoke fiction,

Revolving one year, onto yet another decade friction.

Dirt around wagon wheels did rut Tallmadge once.

As autos added pebbles, rock – to cement asphalt.

Oh dew, remember those muscle cars of the sixties.

 

Tick tock clockwise time, seconds traverse minute motion,

While counter clockwise traffic, rushes right around moves.

Summer fades to Fall, another Tallmadge class begins journeys,

Where Winter education Spring’s another graduating class.

When Tallmadge grads challenge the World in Spoken Words.

 

Amid Golden Graduations, one’s new High School sub comes.

First to become Junior, and then meet time’s wrecking ball.

What is Young’s youth, will then be, aged forevermore - lost dirt.

Wherein dye pyre of rubble, we bear the Phoenix Tallmadge Circle.

Dew dost depart Wraith - Tallmadge High Golden Graduations.

 

 

 

 

 

 

home of the American heArtMosphere Poet