Years of My Life

A Journey from 1944 to … Now

1968–69 School Year

The year that I turned twenty-four,

A year that would transform my life.

For in that summer hopes would soar—

I’d meet the one who’d be my wife.

Yes, summer school at KSU—

Continuing my master’s work—

I met a special classmate who

Soon made my heart go, well, berserk.

Her name was Joyce; she was so bright,

So sweet, and (okay) beautiful

That I knew I was purely right

To fall for her (so dutiful

Was I—to listen to my heart,

To take a chance again on love,

To play that well known courtship part,

A part I knew so little of).

The class on Emerson, Thoreau

Flew by that Summer of the Heart,

That summer I would learn—no, know—

That I could never be apart

From Joyce

Again.