John's Poems

HELLO!

Over the years of writing and teaching writing, John finished one novel, several historical articles, quite a few educational publications, and of course many poems. As website editor, I will be adding and removing poems in each section regularly.

Thanks for coming by!

-Ike Hedger, Website Editor

Initial entries: 11/2009

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Those who wrote forwards to the collections by John Hendricks were:

Running the River-Dr. Gayle Goodin

Cumberland Crossroads-Edwin Davin Vickers

A Gathering of Stones (online only)-Ethlene Dyer Jones

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In his last collection, John Hendricks borrowed a Jewish tradition of placing stones on a grave. Instead, his analogy in Epilogue was for others to   do something similar with his poetry.

Epilogue

I played my lyre

within these shadows

and laid each unshaped stone

above my mound,

one by one,

song and stone.

When passing by,

please repile

a misplaced stone,

or write your own,

then place it where

your shadows fall

above song

and stone.

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This is a poem on a friend of John who passed away a few years ago. He was a Marine during the Viet Nam war.

-Ike Hedger

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In Memory of  Phillip R Basham: January 20, 2010

May I, friend Phil, now late at night

Embark with you in memory’s flight

With other things I cannot send

Until daylight, my silent friend.

That final time when you were ill

I did not know if time would heal:

I felt we both could feel and see,

I here, you there, entrapped yet free.

Perhaps to leave when young is best

Before a cancer may infest.

Let’s stop and mull each other’s way,

From you by night, from me by day.

A sunrise ends my tantalized pace,

And you and I come face to face.

We’ll ponder stones that cover fears,

Those ne’er dreamed in our green years.

Good morning, Phil!

About John and this website

John is a retired educator living in Georgia. A native of Tennessee, he held positions as a high school and college teacher or administrator in Kentucky, Tennessee, Virginia, and Georgia.

This website includes poems from four sources. All are copyrighted or renewed. Two books were Running the River and Cumberland Crossroads. Although long out of publication, both sometimes appear online as used books.

A third source was supposed to be a third book entitled A Gathering of Stones. Unfortunately, a previous publisher was not available so John placed it on the Internet for a few years.

Finally there are poems not printed in a collection.Several of these did appear in a college publication. John was employed there for a few years as an adjunct instructor in English. Other poems were winners of some position either in the Poetry Society of Virginia of the Georgia Poetry Society.

If the viewer is looking for the narrative poem included in John's book Once Upon A Lynching titled "The Ballad of Jerome Boyett" the book is available from the Scott County (Tennessee) Historical Society. It is my understanding that John gave the copyright to that organization.

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 Dr. Hendricks wrote this free verse poem after receiving word of his 2010 high school reunion, class of 1957. This is a rare rendering of a free verse format by this writer.-Ike Hedger

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Reminder:

1957 Class Reunion, Tennessee Military Institute, July 2010

Past days loan memories

Now set Once Upon a Time

For my grandkids and me.

I  search  events and dates,

Then strike through unknown names

In bibles wrinkling old,

Or ponder  Christmas lists,

Epistles with no answers,

And bare reunion seats.

My  old and unwound clock

Has  rusting hands unmoved:

“Eleven fifty-nine.”

 THIS SITE IS CHANGED FREQUENTLY.

John Hendricks while a student at Western Kentucky  had a romance with a girl who is renamed in this new poem, published here for the first time. They obtained a marriage license in Bowling Green in 1960, but no "knot was ever tied." -Ike Hedger

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Shirley Lee, June 25, 2010, 5:59 A.M.

Dear Shirley Lee, I dreamed of you

This night when aging fears

Turned back to times when fears were few

In adolescent years.

Mimosa scents evoke your name

As borne this springtime’s air.

It makes me glance a photo frame

And prove you are still there.

Now  hand in hand again with you

I stroll a college day,

Then suffer angst as lovers do

And walk another way.

So oft when old I live when young

A cast in memory’s host,

Inviting many, these among

My own impending ghost.

These words that I have penned tonight

Are dreams of times afar.

I see  there’s coming of daylight

And blinking final star.

There’s sun outside, my pains await,

And these I must attend.

As windows close, your scents abate.

There’s fences I must mend.

Dear Shirley Lee, I may meet you

Perchance when aging fears

Recycles disparate times of two

In adolescent years.

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