Reflections of life is a collection of poems; some are essays on things we see and experience every day, some are special memories from times past during the author's life of 70 years. Most of the poems are written in four line stanzas with rhyming words at the ends of each two lines. Some are humorous and some are almost spiritual in nature. Some are factual; there are poems that describe love and its relationships, and even the elements of nature. Some reflect a life of living alone and the stillness and noises I hear around me. Some are patriotic and reflect my Boy Scout and Military experiences. In fact, there is just about something for everybody in this collection. Tennis players and Starbucks customers will relate to a few, as will men who are single and enjoy female friends and companions. It's probably more "Father knows Best" and "Ozzie and Harriet" than the "Simpsons" and "Saturday Night Live". Teachers will enjoy sharing them with students, because of the way the words are poetically laid out, in comparison to traditional sentence structure as we used to "diagram" them. The relationship of nouns to verbs and adjectives can be a little different with poetry due to a need to rhyme. This is an enjoyable book to read, and one that you can pick up over and over again and appreciate something new each time.
Glenn Graves is a native Southern Californian, having grown up in Westwood and Pacific Palisades in the Los Angeles area after WWII. He has a BS Degree in Business from the University of Colorado, and an Associates Degree in Real Estate. Starting as a banker out of college, he spent most of his work life in sales in the Real Estate industry. Along the way he was drafted into the Army, completed OCS, and was commissioned a 2LT Armor. Sent to Ft. Lewis, WA, he was later given command of a Basic Training Company. It was here in Tacoma, WA, he and his ex-wife started their family, an amazing and beautiful boy. Six years later, the family moved to San Diego county, where Glenn started in the Title Insurance business. He later became a Mortgage Loan officer and finally a Sales Agent. A student of the Bible, Glenn is infatuated with the stories and history recorded in the Old Testament, as well as the letters of Paul in the New Testament. In fact, his second volume of poetry will include poetic interpretations of Bible stories and concepts of Christian belief. This first attempt at self-publishing was rather exciting and fun to put together, because he took ten years to build a collection of over 250 poems, from which to draw from. Over that time his family and friends have enjoyed the pieces one at a time, and in most cases, raved about the quality of his work. Glenn puts this down as one of his top five things accomplished in his 70 years of life. Number one is always being a dad and later a Grandpa; number two is being an Eagle Scout and being on camp staff to teach outdoor skills; number three is an officer in the Army and being able to make an impact on the lives of scared young men; number four is helping people buy their most expensive asset, their home; number five is publishing his first book of poetry and being in a position to share many of life's simple pleasures! In a nut shell, Glenn is a teacher at heart, and whether it is teaching scouting, in the Army, Sunday school, youth soccer, tennis, or just sharing his poems, he loves his God's world. He currently resides in the Rancho Bernardo community of north San Diego city. When it comes to writing poetry, he writes about what he sees and experiences, and writes each piece to be read aloud. As he reads aloud, he measures the cadence and tempo of each line. Glenn is not a complicated type of guy, and he writes poetry that can be understood by just about everybody that reads it.
