Sense and Sound

SENCE AND SOUND

DONALD PATRICK REDHEFFER

iUniverse, Inc.

Bloomington

Sense and Sound

Copyright © 2012 by Donald Patrick Redheffer.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the publisher except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

This is a work of fiction. All of the characters, names, incidents, organizations, and dialogue in this novel are either the products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.

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ISBN: 978-1-4759-0087-3 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4759-0091-0 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-4759-0090-3 (ebk)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2012904728

iUniverse rev. date: 04/24/2012

To Joselita

There is no treasure in this world

That can compare to love’s embrace;

The universe can shed no light

Without her lovely face.

Contents

Acknowledgments

Sense and Sound

Preface

Prologue

Adversity

Aging

Alone

America

Argument

Art

Beauty

Belief

Biography

Books

Causality

Chance

Character

Civilization

Confession

Conformity

Consistency

Convictions

Cosmos

Creative Writing

Creativity

Crime and Punishment

Criticism

Death

Definition

Democracy

Destiny

Doctors

Doubt

Education

Elegy

Endeavor

Ends

Envy

Equality

Eternity

Excess

Experience

Exploitation

Facts

Faith

Fame

Famous People

Fate

Faults

Fear

Fidelity

Flattery

Followers

Forgiveness

Free Speech

Freedom

Friendship

Future

Gambling

Genius

Gestures

Giving

Goals

Good Examples

Government

Greatness

Guns

Habit

Happiness

Heaven and Hell

Hope

Humanity

Humor

Hypocrisy

Iconoclasm

Idealism

Identity

If

Ignorance

Illusions

Injury

Innocence

Judgment

Justice

Kisses

Knowledge

Laughter

Leisure

Liberty

Lies

Life

Literature

Loss

Love

Man and Machine

Manners

Marriage

Masks

Mathematics

Mediocrity

Memory

Mercy

Metaphysics

Miser

Misfortune

Moderation

Modesty

Moral Relativity

Morality

Mystery

Nature

Necessity

Novels

Originality

Pacifism

Paradox

Parting

Partisan

Patriotism

Pedantry

Philosophy

Plans

Pleasure

Poetry

Politics

Possessions

Postulates

Power

Praise

Prayer

Pride

Principles and Practice

Prisons

Professions

Proverbs

Punishment

Purpose

Questions and Answers

Quips

Quotations

Reality

Reason

Regret

Religion

Remembrance

Saints and Sinners

Science

Science and Morality

Security

Self

Self-Interest

Self-Knowledge

Self-Reproach

Sentimentality

Sorrow

Stoicism

Success

Sympathy

Taboos

Talent

Teaching

Temptation

Thought

Time

Tranquility

Travel

Truth

War

War and Peace

Wealth

Wisdom

Wit

Wonder

Words

Words and Action

Writing

Epilogue

About the Author

Acknowledgments

My sincere gratitude to Robert Smythe, Ronald Kaufman, Gwyneth Arounvong, Pray Arounvong, Marjorie Mendoza, Jason Laroco, and Judy Redheffer, who have encouraged the writing of this book. Special thanks to my fiancée, Joselita Velasco, for typing the text, and to Robert Smythe for proofreading.

Sense and Sound

The poet paints the world

With words of sense and sound,

Strives for deeper meaning

Than is ordinarily found.

With imagination

Thought finds a way to see

Life’s many contradictions

As subtle unity.

Poetry probes the heart

For meaning of it all.

Similes create a world

Comparing big to small.

The poet may not understand

The vitality of his voice.

The pen is led by the hand

As though it had no choice.

Preface

The Poet

My songs can be deliberate

With thought well defined,

Or they can be pure surprise

Unknown to the mind.

When the heart insinuates,

Words find their own way.

With sense and sound they surround

Our feelings to betray.

Once this avalanche of feeling

Has tight hold of me

There is no way to look away

From what I’ve come to be.

The poet hopes his precious words

Will someday live to be

A cherished memory of the race

Facing its mortality.

—Donald Redheffer

Prologue

Writers must become aware

That words have sense and sound;

Stand up and read aloud

What you have written down.

If your lines reverberate

With strains of simple truth;

The music of the written word

Has found eternal youth.

Adversity

1. Precious Prey

The lessons of adversity

Cannot be washed away;

Branded for life,

We become their precious prey.

2. Only Known to Grief

Adversity breeds allegiance

That tranquility never knows,

For pain is an acid rain,

Deeper than quid pro quo.

The sharing of such agony

Is a bond greater than belief,

Reaching a place deep within

Which is only known to grief.

Aging

3. Time’s Teaching

Free time is best used with age,

When passions are subdued;

May find a way to engage

A real thought or two.

Probe deeply into the heart,

Let time’s teaching find a way

To bring a depth to our art

That youth cannot convey.

Some say with passing years

They doubt age makes us wise;

But surely life’s flood of tears

Wash away the lies.

4. Age and Virtue

Some see balance in growing old—

Loss of power and growth of soul.

Somehow goodness makes amends

For our lack of self-control.

Virtue not found in youth

Rarely becomes the stuff of age

We like to think goodness grows

In an old and lovely sage.

No harm in this tender view

Of those in steep decline.

Kindness at any age

Is a touch of the divine.

5. Ebb Tide

Those who die in little ways

Through stages of decline;

Become a fraction of the one

Who once was superfine.

It may seem a blessing

When death finally comes;

But life clings to every breath,

Unwilling to succumb.

The years can bring a passion

Never felt before;

Time touches every moment

With the need to do more.

For me, there’s only writing

Songs from deep inside,

Words that ring with wonder

Before life’s ebb tide.

6. Lost Youth

The pursuit of a younger mate

May be beauty sought and found;

More likely this chosen state

Is lost youth rebound.

7. Perhaps respect conferred in age

Is justified on moral grounds;

Sins that once dared to rage

Have proved to be unsound.

8. The temperance that comes with age

Seems the tyranny of time;

Free of desire that once engaged

Brings a taste of the sublime.

9. Golden Years

The golden years were once seen

As wisdom’s native ground;

Now the old are often told

Their thinking is unsound.

Science and technology

Move at the speed of light;

They say age cannot engage

A world so recondite.

The insights of maturity

Are rudely cast aside;

There is no grace in a race

When wisdom is decried.

10. Those who are advanced in years

And bitterly complain of life

May find solace through the tears,

For time will soon end their strife.

Alone

11. Aloneness is polarity

Full of joy and grief.

Solitude brings ecstasy;

Loneliness is a thief.

America

12. Land of Plenty

In the land of plenty,

Food everywhere abounds.

Few find restraint

When dinner comes around.

Restraint is known to all

For life full and long,

But pleasure heaped on pleasure

Can’t be so very wrong.

Values turn to more and more

Of whatever is desired.

Life’s measure is