By sheer coincidence, this photo was in the newspaper when we were making nose plugs for our students last year.
This poem was sent to us by Mark Hochmuth, who participated in a course we taught in Grand Marais, MI this summer.
November 22, 1963
‘Twas fifty years ago
will hear that many times more
the event cannot be ignored
it remains a memory evermore
One thousand days of Camelot
ending when JFK was shot
I remember that day
as if it were today
Miss Powell’s sixth grade room
just before noon
voice on the P.A. said
President Kennedy is dead
Some sobbed with heads bowed
others cried out loud
Ricky Davis did say:
“My dad didn’t vote for him anyway.”
A hero of the Second World War
younger than any president before
gone in his prime
leaving Jackie, John Jr. and Caroline
Civil rights and public service
Bay of Pigs and Cuban missile crisis
Berlin air lift and space race
Peace Corp and Vietnam War
Time has put him to the test
short and mixed legacy at best
he was not perfect you see
but neither are we
Idealist
realist
politician
humanist
John Fitzgerald Kennedy
not only in Arlington Cemetery
but as spoken by Pericles:
“…graven not so much on stone as in the hearts of men.”
Mark Hochmuth 11-4-2013
