Frank V. Gardner

Frank V. Gardner Poems

All through our lovely married life
I've had to go away.
And it was always you, my dear,
Who was back home to stay.
...

My father, who I hardly knew,
Was never one to shirk.
He died in nineteen twenty four,
While helping friends at work.
...

The day that Danny went away
He didn't make a fuss.
It was the second day of May....
He left a note for us.
...

Today, I sat me down to ponder
Why I write like this:
Four metric feet, first line of text,
And three feet in the next.
...

The world around us doesn't wait for us to make a mark;
For waiting is so futile when we have so little spark.
So many do the waiting as they watch the world go by;
Too many sit and wonder how the mountains meet the sky.
...

The body man is in a job
That he's been in for years.
He gets it done, as they all do,
With muscle, sweat.... and beers.
...

Six years we've lived in Mexico,
And now it's time to go.
We're headed back to Washington,
Where winter brings the snow.
...

They called us Landing Force, Air Support
Control Unit One:
Marines who knew the difference 'tween
A rifle and a gun.
...

In nineteen hundred twenty four,
Because our father died,
Our mother had to go to work,
And swallow family pride.
...

One Joseph 'Rudy' Julian,
A World War Two Marine,
Was killed on Iwo Jima in a
A most heroic scene.
...

The day John Kennedy was shot,
He bowed his wounded head...
His wife embraced him frantically,
Her lap, a martyr's bed.
...

The years have passed since Kennedy...
With heartache, war, and strife....
How would it be if, only,
He had not then lost his life?
...

This early morn I woke befuddled; .
Came downstairs to write
These thoughts that in my mind were muddled
Through the stormy night.
...

There's got to be another poem;
Perhaps a book or two.
I have ideas for writing them
By then I should be through.
...

Pope John is dead! The crowds go home,
Their vigil's over now;
Their prayers continue for the man
Who simply showed them how.
...

On Echols Street in Sixty Three
There was some 'painting' done,
And those who did that painting
Said it was a lot of fun.
...

We're separated by the creek!
Frustrated by the pike!
We're cut off from the town in ways
No one of you would like!
...

In spring when buds are popping,
And the leaves are showing green,
Who could enjoy it better than
A girl of seventeen.
...

Another year has passed, my love,
And now it's twenty five:
The total years our marriage has
Been true, and been alive.
...

Discussing the Pacific War, a student asked of me,
"Why take so small an island, isolated, far at sea? "
I told the class what we had done; it jogged my memory.
At home, I wrote that epic down in verse and poetry.
...

Frank V. Gardner Biography

Frank, born in Washington, lived his early years in the small community of Glencarlyn, across the Potomac River from the Nation's Capital, in Arlington County, Virginia. After his father, Francis I. V. Gardner, died in a construction accident. his mother, Marie Gardner, moved with Frank, age four, and his two sisters, back to Washington, where she went to work as a clerk-typist for the U. S. Government. Frank attended elementary and high school in Washington. After completing two years of college in 1942, Frank enlisted in the U. S. Marine Corps to fight in World War Two. After boot camp at Parris Island, South Carolina, he was trained as a radio operator in the Naval Training Station on the campus of Texas A. and M. College, College Station, Texas. He fought in three major Pacific island battles, landing in amphibious assault on Iwo Jima, Okinawa, and Saipan. As World War Two ended, Staff Sergeant Gardner was honorably discharged from the Marines in late 1945. Frank returned to Mount St. Mary's College, Emmitsburg, Maryland, receiving a Bachelor's Degree in Social Science two years later. In May 1948, he entered the Federal Bureau of Investigation as a special agent, serving that Bureau for thirteen years in five states and the District of Columbia. Along the way, he married Geraldine Donahue of Cleveland, Ohio, in 1951; they had nine children. In 1962, Frank moved to the U S. Department of State, where he served three years as a security officer. He then entered the Foreign Service and served six years as a U. S. Consul in Mexico at three American consulates. For the next ten years, he served as an administrative officer for the State Department's Office of International Conferences, with temporary assignments in a variety of overseas stations, one each, in: Tegucigalpa, Honduras; Quito, Ecuador; Belgrade, Yugoslavia; and Castries, Saint Lucia. In addition, Frank had several such assignments in both New York City and Geneva, Switzerland. His last posting overseas was for two years as an administrative officer at the American Embassy in Buenos Aires, Argentina. He retired from the Foreign Service in 1986. They had 9 children,17 grandchildren, and 7 great-grandchildren.)

The Best Poem Of Frank V. Gardner

This Time, You Come To Me

All through our lovely married life
I've had to go away.
And it was always you, my dear,
Who was back home to stay.

It wasn't my own choosing,
But the Government, which said
That I must leave my family,
And sacred marriage bed.

The FBI was first to pry
Our soothing arms apart.
And, each time I returned to you
With ever swelling heart.

The Foreign Service, next, attempted
Separate our arms.
But I was not to be denied,
Returning to your charms.

I came back to you every time,
From places I can name:
Tegucigalpa, Honduras....
Pronounce it just the same.

Then 'international conferences'
Descended on our life.
The separations that resulted
Could have brought some strife.

The OAS had quite a meet,
In seventy and four:
The farthest from you I had been,
Yes, Quito, Ecuador.

And that same year Geneva had
Some orientation;
Then on to Spain to bring our daughter,
Karen, 'home in one.'

The 'Law of Sea' then intervened
In seventy and five.
Considering that travel,
How did our love stay alive?

Again it was Geneva with
One month between our touch;
But you have that memento in
A lovely pendant watch.

Ensuing year, the 'Law of Sea'
Did do us in again,
By interrupting annivers'ry
Five and ten and ten.

The time I spent in New York town,
One hundred fifty days,
Had left me spinning like a top,
And kept me in a daze.

In seventy and seven it was
'Law of Sea' once more;
But, just to help with my replacement:
Help him keep the score.

So, three short trips up to the 'Apple, '
Only ones I had.
In retrospect, then, I must say,
That year was not so bad.

And now the year is seven-eight;
Again, it's 'Law of Sea.'
Again, I'm in Geneva but
This time you come to me.
Before, I've always gone away,
And you, the one to bide.
This time you close the distance,
And, my feelings, I can't hide.

You've come a long way, Gerry, and
May our reunion be
The best that it has ever been:
This time you come to me.


(May 1978, Geneva, Switzerland)

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