Contemplating "My Poetry"

Table of Contents

  1. "The Work"
  2. "Now" 
       Following    are     my    thoughts

                       about           "My Poetry"...
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and now about the last two . . .

...where they came from ...
why I selected them...

... more on their background....


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"The Work"

The year was 1968.

Robert Kennedy was assinated; Richard Nixon was jeered as he attended Martin Luther King, Jr.'s funeral; Andy Warhol received two bullets into his stomach but recovered; Bob Dylan, The Beatles, and Janis Joplin were thriving throughout the world as Hippies indulged in tribal rites in Manhattan. Hair hit Broadway; The Wadsworth Publishing Company published Studying Psychology by C.W. Telford.


This is from the beginning of Grandpa's Words which I constructed in one session on October 13, 1992 - the day he died.


The following is an article recreated here verbatimfrom the San Jose State University Spartan Daily


Retired psychology professor dies

By KERRY PETERS
Spartan Daily Staff Writer SJSU psychology Professor Robert Fox has fond memories of a man he affectionately calls "Tel."
"Tel was a gentleman's gentlman," Fox said. A clock that Tel made for him hangs in his breatfast nook. Fox said he will remember Tel every morning when he looks at the clock.
Charles W. Telford, a retired SJSU professor of psychology, died Oct. 13 of a heart attack. He was 89.
Telford, or Tel to his friends, earned his Ph.D. at Vanderbilt University and began his teaching career in 1929 at the University of North Dakota. He also taught at the University of Utah before coming to San Jose State in 1948.
"Tel was very student-oreinted." said psychology Professor Karl Mueller. "Students had a very high opinion of him."
Mueller said he recently talked to a former student of Telford who thought his class was one of the best she had ever taken.
In 1951, Telford became head of the psychology department and chairman of the division of psychology, philosophy and statistics.
Four years later, Telford decided to resign from those positions so he could devote more of his time to teaching.
Aside from teaching, Telford wrote numerous books dealing with various areas of psychology, including educational, general, adjustment and child psychology.
After his retirement in 1972, Telford continued to conduct research and write books. Mueller said that, including rewrites, he believes Telford wrote about 43 books in all.
But Telford was not just involved in psychology but many extracurricular activities as well.
His grandson, Jake Olsen, an SJSU student, said Telford build two houses, one in San Jose, in which his wife Aldene still lives, and a cabin. For most of his life, he practiced woodworking and built 10 grandfather clocks and several smaller ones.
Telford was also an avid garderner who grew oranges, lemons, prunes, plums and berries which he often gave away by the bagful to his friends and neighbors.
Those who worked with Telford held him in high regard, not just as a teacher, but as a friend.
"He was very generous with his time," Mueller said. "He was very altruistic." Mueller said he remembered once when he was ill and trying to find a professor to teach his classes for him, Telford immediately volunteered.
Fox said when he first started in the department he and Telford would get together for lunch and talk about the history of the department.
"He was an invaluable source of information," Fox said.
The psychology department and Foundation have set up a trust fund in Telford's memory that will be administered to various areas in the department."
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"Now"

This is a poem from the book Notes to Myself. It has no name, but I think this is about right for it. My mother gave me this classic during college I believe, probably in 1988 or so. Of the book, Hugh writes,

I'm not exactly sure why this quote jumped out at me (I even wrote it in my diary), but I guess it's meaning is best stated by Hugh himself.

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