The Back Road Cafe - ■ Poems by Peter N Robertson

Pete Robertson
Poems by Peter N Robertson

Peter Robertson was born in Keene, N.H. in May 1935. In 1942 the family moved to Concord, N.H. while his Dad began his service as a Navy doctor. The family moved to the Portsmouth, N.H. area when his Dad was transferred to the Portsmouth Naval Hospital. In late 1945, the family returned to Keene.

In 1949, Peter became a member of the First Congregational Church of Keene. Later that year, Peter entered Holderness School in Plymouth, N.H., a school of the Episcopal Church of New Hampshire. He graduated in 1953 and entered Yale University in the Fall. At Yale, he worshiped at Yale’s Battell Chapel where he appreciated the music as well as noted theological speakers. He graduated in June 1957.

In August 1957, Peter reported to Fort Sill, OK under the Army ROTC program. Completing his training as an artillery second lieutenant, Peter received orders to South Korea where he served in a field artillery battalion. While there, he commanded an observation post very close to the Korean DMZ. On 21 January 1959 at the OP, he incurred an injury that would result in the amputation of his right arm below the elbow at Walter Reed Army Hospital.

In January 1960, the Army approved his request to remain on active duty. Meanwhile, he had met and married Lois Langan, an Occupational Therapist 2^nd Lieutenant at Walter Reed. Thereafter, Peter completed several classes at sundry Army posts. He served in Okinawa, Korea [again], and Hawaii rising to the rank of Major. While in Hawaii, he joined the Schofield Barracks Army Chapel Choir.

During this time, Peter and Lois had two children: Norma Louise and Donald Norris. Then, in December 1972, Peter retired medically from the Army and completed an MBA program at Wayne State University in Detroit, MI.

In 1974, Detroit’s Bank of the Commonwealth employed him. He left in 1981 to take a position with Seattle First National Bank [later Bank of America], focusing on trade finance. Additionally, he joined the Congregational Church on Mercer Island, United Church of Christ [CCMI – UCC] in 1982.

In January 2010, Donald committed suicide, trapped by his alcoholism and depression. He left three daughters. He had earlier divorced the mothers of the girls. From 1999 to her death on 7 December 2014, Lois battled Alzheimer’s before succumbing to an aggressive breast cancer. In 2015, Norma accepted a position with a pension administrator in Green Bay, WI.

Having retired from B of A in March 1993, Peter expanded his involvement with CCMI. He began a 10 year period of service as the church’s treasurer in 1986. Concurrently, he served as Treasurer of the Pacific Northwest Conference of the U.C.C from 1998 through 2006. From 2006 to 2008, he served as CCMI’s Moderator. Later in 2016, he served an additional 13 months as CCMI’s Treasurer.

Wednesday

Mar202019

Time

Wednesday, March 20, 2019 at 6:34PM

If the Creator has no point of start
Nor a point of final termination,
Its focus is advances, but no depart,
With neither self-praise nor condemnation.

For humanity, whose short lives are bound,
It is important to record the past
So to understand how to forge around
The mortal limit that seems so vast.

Time is nothing but an old human plan
To give people means to order their days,
Define their history, and their life-span
While seeking to survive in any way.

Let us play the match that is our one life
In true good humor with no deadly strife.

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Wednesday

Feb202019

Celestial Crafts

Wednesday, February 20, 2019 at 12:21AM

Since the crack of the celestial sunrise,
When divine forces moved across the void
Using the debris to enhance the size
Of an ever expanding ellipzoid,
The eternal Crafter has worked such skill
To improve the promise of spinning orbs
And their capacity to increase still,
Striving beyond their limit to absorb.
The means from which such steady progress comes
From slow growth then decay, or birth then death,
Of inert and living masses in sum,
Thereby creating new features of great breadth.
Yet mortal humans have a major role
To improve and preserve creation’s whole.

Dale Rominger |

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Wednesday

Jun202018

Song of Regretful Sorrow

Wednesday, June 20, 2018 at 8:34PM

Come sing a song of regretful sorrow

In memory of absent, fallen souls

Who acted in the now, not the ‘morrow,

To save and help others reach vital goals.

Gaining such results meant taking a chance

Of bodily injury, or even demise;

Care for others, not one’s self, leads perchance

To obtaining a spiritual prize.

Those who have sacrificed their mortal life

Include both “friend” or “foe”, male or female,

Adult or child, trained, or not, to quell strife

In venues found at sea, in air, or on dale.

From what inner base doth such as these come?

A core of love honed to a focused sum.

Peter N. Robertson

10 May 2018

Dale Rominger |

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Tuesday

Jan302018

Mountains Meet the Sky

Tuesday, January 30, 2018 at 10:30PM

When we go to where mountains meet the sky,
We soar above the jutting, snowy peaks
While our spirits are shedding accrued doss,
Free of mass at last, free to really seek.
We become able to truly travel
At speeds so much faster than that of light,
Enabled thereby to visit wonders
Such as nebulae or stars lost to night.
Our Creator might assign us duties
To aid in expanding the sphere of space
Achieving our greatest life potential
With refined understanding, love, and grace.

“Nothing is something” is a certain fact,
Thus allowing growth by creative act.

Peter N Robertson

16 July 2017

Dale Rominger |

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Tuesday

Oct032017