PRO LIFE

PRO LIFE


Which way is up?
  And which way is down?
Which way is Heaven?
 And which way is Hell?

Is the world really round?
 Or just flattened out,
       and turned upside down.

Maybe day time is night.
And night time is day.

Or ANY TIME is a life time.
Who's to say?


  Bob Jenkens

Grandpa Daniel Radjenski

I never really considered what my Grandpa Danny would have thought about my poems.
My close friends know I write poetry. I share what I'm writing. And they either enjoy it or do a good job faking.
I've seen my friend Kurt pick up my composition book. All written in pencil and read it from start
to end. Allot of projects in work. He watches how I change and edit.
 I would imagine Grandpa Danny could have pictured me on a roof. And taken pride that I took
his advise and learned a trade. With the personality I have. I had allot of fun on the radio working
with my listeners. I had an obligation to them. School closings, weather information, food drives,
Public service announcements but more importantly I wanted to make them smile. I had a woman who called me on more than one occasion and asked me "do you gotta be so happy"? "can't you just shut up and play music"? Have to do a special happy birthday break for her. I had an old dodge truck that use to break down every day. I use to open up my mic and talk about how I ran 2 consecutive 4 minute miles to get to work on time. But I laughed about it. One of my listeners donated a car to me. I hit more deer with that car then at hunting.
 Grandpa Danny couldn't read and I'm not to sure he would have let me just read something to him.
But even if he could read a little bit. He couldn't read it the way I wrote it. To get the emotion and feeling

I had when I wrote it. But if could have handed him a CD he would have listened to that..
At the radio station we produced our own commercials. We used a cool edit pro program that I got
pretty good at. I selected a few of my poems and I recite the poem and I put down a music track under
neath my reciting. This "shower of rain" is a nice piece.

Learn you a Trade my polish grandpa would say

Grandpa Danny ordered whoopers at burger chef. I didn't give it much consideration. When he took me to restaurants he didn't want a menu he just told the waitress what we wanted. That was impressive to me. It was always the same restaurant in napoleon just north of Brooklyn Michigan. He lived in Toledo and would stop at beautiful Clark lake to pick me up when he went to his cottage at wolf lake. We would get bait and go to the deli and buy macaroni salad, RC and Dr Pepper. Also boxes of little Debbie's cakes we called them little Dannie's. I don't know if he always drove so slow or if he did it so he could try and talk to me. But I remember him talking to the back of my head as I gazed out the window pretending not to hear him.
He told me "I'm certain your hearing me". He told me things weren't gonna come natural to me. That I needed to learn a trade to help me in life. something I could always count on  for money. He ran his own janitorial business cleaning offices in Toledo. And for a guy who couldn't read was pretty successful.
I didn't no yet that he couldn't read. Education he use to tell me. Experience experience live and learn you'll see. He was a polish immigrant and spoke polish fluently and he use to say something in polish first and I wouldn't understand then he would say it in English " you made your bed now you have to lie in it". Does he gotta drive so slow? "you think I'm getting on you" he'd tell me. "I'm just saying" Learn you a trade. something to fall back on. When we'd get to the cottage I would pick up the pieces of all the willow trees and we would mow the grass and we would fish. We cooked our suppers in a two room cabin on a gas grill I still have. "Eat eat" he would say. Were poor people we have to enjoy simple things. Grandpa Loved to eat.

 Learn you a trade grandpa said, I end up using roofing for my fall back work. I can roof a house by myself in a week and love doing it.
I worked for builder Mark Edward who swore I had goat in my blood when he saw me move around on a roof. I make it look easy Just this last summer a man who had been watching me roof a neighbors house came out to tell me I should have my name on a sign out front because he has never seen a roof look so good. I told him your only saying that because you can appreciate that I did it by myself. He agreed and told me I looked like a little kid playing on a great big pile of sand up there. I Love being on a roof.
 I wish Grandpa would of been around when I got through school and got a radio job. He use to love Paul Harvey. "that guy knows how to tell a story" he'd say. I could of prank called him. got him to speak polish on the radio. I don't know what happened to dreams in radio. I wish we could of drove through Loch Erin real slow as I pointed out to him.I roofed that house and that house. My dog sparky wages has roofed over 100 roofs with me.he's the best!

sparky is laying
 just over my ear

Add caption

Computer friendly

It's a hard drive like a police chase.

A real live rat race.

It's not a nightmare or a wireless dream.

not 1982 it's 2013.

I'm just a dumb builder or so it seems.

Computer friendlies an oxymoron to me.

A header goes over windows and doors

and a footer goes in the ground.

 It's the most important part

 That the foundation is built on.

And I can build a house in my dreams.

So why can't some computer guy write a program for me?

One that can cut copy and paste

all of my dreams.

Make a dvd copy of 2013.

(Computer friendly pajamas and soft ware dreams)

Bob Jenkens

you mean i'm gonna stay this color? (Steve Martian) the jerk!

"I was born a poor black child". That's an opening quote Steve Martin makes, In the 1979 movie the jerk. In the movie he's been adopted by a poor African American family and grows to adult hood naively unaware of his obvious adoption. He don't realize the difference in skin color compared to the rest of the family. And his brothers tease him because of his utter lack of rhythm while they set out on the porch playing blues music. One night he hears a orchestra song on the radio and his feet begin to move with an urge to dance. He sees this as a calling and leaves his family to discover his purpose in life. After he hikes from home he finds employment and a place to stay by taking a  job at a gas station. After a period there the new phone books come out. Steve Martins at his best jumping up and down thrilled to death to find he's listed in the local phone book, and his name is in print for the first time. "The new phone books are here the new phone books are here".
 I'm gonna be that way myself. First time I'm in print. I'm not adopted but I was naively unaware my adult hood could be so greatly affected by a child hood that I couldn't understand. I don't know if there was a missed diagnosis and I had Learning disabilities. Or if I just didn't care to learn. I can remember my fourth grade teacher Mrs Robolde sitting me in a chair while all the other kids left for recess. She didn't scold me in an abrasive way ans told me "you are gonna have to learn to read." 

 When did I start writing? or have I yet? Writing is how I vent. I can't write elaborate stories with fictional character's.
I just scribble my feelings down on paper. Sometimes I can write it and you couldn't have said it any better having felt it yourself. The first piece I wrote was in prison in Jackson Michigan. so was the second, third, fourth. It was during the Governor  Engler administration when they were still trying to rehabilitate convicts. Jackson community collage offered classes. well now I was a little more eager to learn. I took a full load every semester and carried a 3.47. Course I had to drop algebra. A real learning experience  let me tell you. My first night in Jackson I seen a guy get stabbed 17 times over a two dollar crape game. I Don't roll dice. I seen people literally loose their sanity and need to be restrained and hauled off. Only to come back weeks later drugged up so bad they couldn't defend themselves. Speaking of coming back I did enough time to see prisoners come and go and come back and go again. I'm not bragging. How many guys were writing poetry? I didn't let them know I did. But I'd show it to them now.. I wonder how many of those guys are still there? Some of them were doing double natural lives. Before I was released from  prison I applied to the Specs Howard school of broadcast arts and was accepted. I wanted to pursue a career in radio because I somehow thought I could share my experience and prevent a younger generation from learning the way I did. from not wanting to learn to read or learn in general.
My grandpa use to say "never be afraid to let someone learn you something". "Things aren't going to come natural to you." 
That's what he told me. I had to find out for myself somethings wrong with me... That's all I can say about that.
That's me with my pants down. All I need is this chair and this paddle ball thing..... and maybe someone to see... me for who I am. 
    

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