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The Green Ribbon

By John on December 15, 2011 in

When I saw the green ribbon
So beautifully spent on the table,
And its multi-colored curled cousins sleeping nearby,
The fearful thought that Christmas was over
Filtered through my heart and it sank lower
Than the winter sun at solstice, then
I remembered, I remembered the promise
That Christmas is never-ending
I can imagine all those pasts and futures
When all the Christmases past and present
Are forever new and I am always holding my
Grandson as he holds his ears, then hugs me tight
At the first blast of the trumpet of the high cross processional
And my granddaughter snuggled close to me
Cradling her new rag doll and me always
Standing at gate thirty-seven as my two granddaughters
Rush off the plane and our time together never ends
Each smiling through her ride in the convertible
And see my little boy floating wooden clothespins
In the birdbath while I rake leaves and
I can imagine sitting in the stands with him forever
Our silly orange and white caps snug to our ears,
With the score tied and the everlasting promise of winning,
To see my daughter sitting on our back steps with hammer
And box of rocks looking to the mystery inside each
To forever experience her first ballet steps
And her last delicately enraptured dance
Then my Love: To have our every day in the present again,
Her sleepy head ever upon my shoulder, ever pouring
My cup of tea in the saffron-sunny promise of breakfast,
To never leave the covers beside her in the cold and
To look up every moment of every day and see her
Smiling quietly – waiting our first Christmas,
Standing there in her bright green overcoat
Spun from the Bright Green Ribbon of Christmas eternal.

John Anderson Norman
December 25, 2001

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Technicolor

By John on September 8, 2011 in

THE LABEL CLEARLY STAMPED
INTO MY NARROW FOREHEAD
CLEARLY READS:
USE COLOR FILM ONLY.
MEANWHILE, THE ALLOTTED
SIX-HUNDRED-THIRTEEN-THOUSAND HOURS
LIKE FENCE POSTS PASSING BY ONE AT A TIME,
ARE ONLY A MONOTONOUS BLUR.
BROKEN SLATS IN BLACK MARIAS
HAVE BECOME PEEP-HOLES IN
OUR ALMOST-DEAD EYELIDS.
GOD ORDAINED THIS FEATURE FILM TECHNICOLOR.
GRASP THEN, HIS BROADER BRUSH
AND PAINT THIS THING
IN BRIGHT RED AND YELLOW.

February 11, 1996
Revised November 8, 1996 

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Goodbye Sims Goodbye Takeo

By John on July 19, 2011 in

Goodbye Sims, Goodbye TokeoAs World War II rages, love and war are waged on an equal footing. Whether in the pine forests of eastern Texas or the Japanese occupied South Pacific jungles, John Peek Sims must fight for survival on both fronts.

Often relying on his self-deprecating wit and wisdom, Sims spent the years before Pearl Harbor playing college football for Southern Methodist University in Dallas and fending off sexy co-eds while trying to stay true to his girlfriend back home. But in June of 1942, Sims enters the U.S. Naval Reserve and becomes a member of the elite Sundowner Squadron.

As a fighter pilot in the Pacific, he discovers that overcoming the atrocities of a cruel enemy requires a similar fortitude to surviving the vicissitudes of a love triangle. But as the war draws to a close, Sims will face the ultimate test of his loyalty—and his heart.

Goodbye Sims Goodbye Takeo artfully blends honest fact and earnest fiction around the life of real-life hero and collegiate-football-star-turned-fighter pilot, John Peek Sims. John Anderson Norman pens a powerful World War II novel that brilliantly captures the harsh reality of warfare with the intensity of human emotion.