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Archive for November, 2012

“Retirement: Linda Terry State Farm Insurance of McKinney Texas” copyright 2012 John J. Rigo

Posted in Retiring from State Farm Agency after twenty-eight years in McKinney Texas, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , on November 30, 2012| Leave a Comment »

"My Bride"

“My Bride”

As of today my wife retired from her State Farm Insurance Agency of twenty-eight years in McKinney, Texas.  It has been an emotional ride for both my wife and I in relating to her customers of many years, and her pending retirement.  Many broke into tears, both in person and by phone in receiving the notification letter.  Linda was about six to seven years overdue for retirement, but it was the blessing of our customer family that kept her in business for twenty-eight years.  Her customers were her family and became more than just business customers but highly personal family.  We will miss each of them and will keep them in our hearts.

       

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“The Vision” copyright 2011 John J. Rigo, forthcoming poetry book “Passion Amidst Apathy”

Posted in He watches over each of us., tagged , , , , , , , , , on November 28, 2012| 2 Comments »

Courtesy of jesussaves.com

Amidst the crowd

I looked up from my thoughts

and there you were.

The smile told me

you were watching over me.

Caring for me

Loving me from afar

protecting me.

It was a flash from eternity

that allowed me this vision.

Thank you God

for not forgetting me

and continuing

to Love me.

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“The Nighmare” copyright 2012 John J. Rigo, upcoming poetry book, “Passion Amidst Apathy”

Posted in Poetry, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , on November 28, 2012| 2 Comments »

 
 

Courtesy of horoskopnamiru.cz

The nightmare was the worse one
I ever remember.
I was in a room somewhere
totally alone.
I owned money to someone.
 
It was money that I did not have.
It was due and payable the following morning.
I had no one to call to help me.
 
I was screaming.
Pounding the furniture.
Throwing things around.
 
I somehow knew
that without this money
in the morning
I was to pay a terrible price.
 
I awoke with a shout upon my lips.
I was in my bed with you.
The fear slowly ebbed away from my body.
 
I felt a great blessing of relief
it was just a nightmare.
I was in my bed
safe with you.
 
My shout from the dream
woke you.
You pressed warmly into
the curve of my arms
and snuggled close to me.
 
More than ever
this morning
I fully realized
the greatest blessing
I have in my life is you.
 

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“Am I Now Lost to my Time?” copyright 2012 John J. Rigo, upcoming book, “Passion Amidst Apathy”

Posted in The New Obama flag for the US, tagged , , , , , on November 27, 2012| Leave a Comment »

Courtesy of freerepublic.com
Somewhere along my journey I stepped into a time machine.
I do not remember exactly when it happened.
I stepped forward in a strange land where a language
was spoken that did not sound like any tongue I knew.
 
The beings looked like me.
The planet seemed the same
but it was not.
 
There was a new God
in this land
in this dimension.
His name was Obama.
 
I looked closer at the eyes
of those about me.
Their was a strange blankness
in their eyes
an emptiness of spirit
I could not explain. 
 
I eagerly sought a sight of a flag pole
to see what land I might be in.
My eyes sought the Red, White and Blue.
 
Instead I looked with fright upon a flag
all to familiar from a past election.
God did not save us.

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"A Christmas Memory From Long Ago" copyright 2008 John J. Rigo, upcoming "Passion Amidst Apathy"

Posted in A Lesson About Love, upcoming book "Passion Amidst Apathy", tagged , , , , , , on November 27, 2012| Leave a Comment »

Courtesy of free-christmas-deskstop-wallpaper.blogspot.com

 
 
 
This poem comes from a true story in my life…..I think it is timeless in its message.   The lesson is that when two people share love, as I and my childhood bride did then, it truly was all the processions we needed.  
 
 
It was our first Christmas together.
We both were eighteen
with barely more
than the clothes on our backs.
 
I was just out of basic training
in the U.S. Air Force.
She had just graduated from high school
and then wrote a bus to Savannah, Georgia,
to join me
the love of her life.
 
We had rented a several room apartment
on the second floor of an old Savannah home.
It was in a falling-down condition.
 
The gifts we shared were inexpensive
but meant the world in their value
and meaning to each of us.
 
She gave me a St. Christopher’s medal of Silver
while I gave her a Catholic missal.
She wanted to become a Catholic like me
prior to us getting married.
 
I took a picture of her opening her present.
The smile upon her face was beautiful.
It was a Christmas in 1960.
 
It will always be a Christmas
I will always remember.
The lesson I learned
that day was
the love between us
was truly
the greatest gift
we could have shared
that Christmas. 
 

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"I Remember Fondly Christmas’ Past" copyright 2005 by John J. Rigo, selection from "Rainbows Amidst Thorns"

Posted in Selection from "Roses Amidst Thorns" published in 2005, tagged , , , on November 25, 2012| 4 Comments »

Courtesy of dailymail.co.uk

(The little boy’s story in the poem is true and a time from my own past.) This Christmas Season of 2012, I was thinking of my Father. This poem mentions him several times. I remember how dirty he was when he came home from work when I was a little boy. My Father was an iron and steel worker.  After he came home and took a bath, my Mother would then attempt to clean the ring out of the bathtub from his bath.  Many times with close to a half hour of scrubbing, she still could not get it out.  In those days, my Father made about a hundred dollars a week.  He worked very hard for that money.

*****************************************

 
 
I remember fondly Christmas’ past
our first tree alive with lights
before it caught fire later that week.
 
I remember fondly the Christmas with toys.
Never before had my brother and I received toys.
How angry my Father became when we broke several
toys after a few hours of play.
 
It was my Father’s first Christmas bonus
as a steel worker.
He spent that bonus on toys for us that Christmas.
He thought those toys would never break.
 
I remember fondly a special Christmas as a kid
when no money was available whatsoever for toys.
We found a punch-out cardboard castle in a
department store window.
 
One dollar and ninety-eight cents was the price of that castle.
My young brother and I played with it for days.
A punch-out castle was the best toy we ever had.
 
I remember fondly Christmas past,
acting in the church Christmas pageant.
I was a little child with the beard of a prophet
shaking in a spotlight in the church play.
It snowed that night.
 
My best friend and I asked
permission to keep wearing the beards.
A most beautiful snow floated through the air
as we walked home together.
 
The dirty streets of the city were made
clean and white with heavy, swirling snow flakes.
We sang church carols walking home
our arms around each other’s shoulder.
How close to baby Jesus we were back then.
 
I remember fondly Christmas’ past
when life seemed so much simpler.
Joys more easily shared with
laughter much deeper than now.
 
Still I thank God that I had those Christmas’ past
even to this special day of a new Christmas.
Another December which will also will soon be gone
into the misty memory of another Christmas’ past.  

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Posted in Uncategorized on November 24, 2012| Leave a Comment »

I have been in this place in my life. It was not until my Lord brough my wife, Linda to me, that I finally experienced true and real love from another. All others in my life that claimed to have loved me….faded away.

Texas Poetry

 
 
It was the weight of a huge boulder upon my heart
crushing the very soul of my spirit from my body.
It was the realization that I was not loved.
 
Without Love in our lives
we are just walking pieces of flesh
without joy
without laughter
without peace.
 
my mind reached back
to memories of when I was loved.
Wrapped in these thoughts
I was able to regain my breath
I pulled death away from my body.
 
I will await another day
with a joy of anticipation
that my future bride 
awaits me
in the future
before me.
  
This hope gives me
strength to face
another day
without the love
I so desperately need
in my life.   

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Posted in Remembering Departed Friends this Thanksgiving weekend, tagged , , , on November 23, 2012| 1 Comment »

The Thanksgiving holiday weekend is a good time to review what true friendships are really about.  It is also a time to remember those who have passed on in our lives that were “True Friends” in every sense of the phrase.

Texas Poetry

 
 
Thru Seventy years of life on this world
there has been a few lessons of life
that were difficult to learn.
 
Knowing the difference
between true friendships and Fair Weather Friends
was one of the hardest lessons of all.
 
In  discovering that vast difference in friendships
I believe we live in a form of self-denial
in realizing the differences.
 
I am now painfully aware
that the best friends I ever had
are now long dead.
 
Thank you Lord
for being to me
the friend that no other is.
 
As my Father once related to me
“One could live a lifetime and be able to count
the true friends they would have had
on one hand.”
 
I have been blessed in my lifetime
to have had two of those real friends
with now my Lord
as my constant Third. 
 
 
 
 
 

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“My Wish for Thanksgiving” copyright 2012 John J. Rigo, Texas’ Commentary

Posted in A Thanksgiving Wish by John J. Rigo, tagged , on November 22, 2012| Leave a Comment »

Courtesy of thisisthewhat.com

It has been a quiet Thanksgiving.  My wife and I got food poisoning several days ago.  We are still trying to get over it.  Early this morning, my wife fixed a Thanksgiving dinner for one of her brothers, and took another dinner to her sisters’ home who received four hours at home from a rest home where she is attempting to heal from two broken ankles.

Earlier today, as I sat at our kitchen table with my bride, her brother, my mind traveled to a wish this day.  I have been with WordPress for sometime now.  I am blessed with a little over a hundred followers.  I have no doubt, some are those that are just curious about me and my poetry and sometimes commentaries are of little value to them.  I am sure some may be enemies hoping to find some posting that they could use in some negative way against me, while there are others who have truly found peace in some of my poetry work.

My thoughts centered more around a dozen individuals of that hundred mark.  Of that dozen, there is hardly a day of postings goes by that they are there with encouraging comments on my work.  Many times in those comments they share their own experiences in  relationship to the poem or commentary.  My wish this day was that I could have been at a Thanksgiving table with these twelve.  What a joy it would have been to have shared their laughter, their hugs, their love.  Know this Thanksgiving Day my friends, my heart is with all of you.

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"Blessings, A Special Gift” A Thanksgiving Poem (Revised) selection from "Roses Amidst Thorns” copyright 2005, John J. RIgo

Posted in A Thanksgiving Poem, Selection from "Roses Amidst Thorns" published in 2005, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , on November 21, 2012| 1 Comment »

Taken Sunrise on Black Friday, November 25th 2011 in Gun Barrel City on Cedar Creek Lake in Texas at OZ our lakehome

The following poem from my first published book, has been a favorite  poem for many years.  It has been republished several times in the Dallas Morning News, The McKinney Courier Gazette, and various major web sites.  From my family to yours, our best wishes and blessings.  

Over the last year, I am especially appreciative of all the positive feedback I have received on this WordPress web site.  Thank You All!

 
Blessings, a special gift from God.
Given in prayer
given when no hope
seems apparent.
 
 
Blessings bring joys
when there is darkness
laughter where there are tears.
Could these blessings be
but tears from God?
 
 
A way that our God lets us know,
that He truly is there
and yes
He does exist?
 
 
At times these gifts are given
when never expected
to let us know
truly love and concern
is there for us all. 
 
 
If you have forgotten on this day
the many special blessings rendered to you.
In this blessed thing called Life.
Get on your knees
render thanks to our God.
 
He will only bless you
with more of His eternal Love.
 

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