6 seconds

July 13, 2025

I think through those last seconds of your life,

that no one wants to think about.

I NEED to think through them, feel them, know them,

because I know you, and you were strong.

You were SO brave, this was your passion.

You were happiest in the clouds,

You knew the risks! studied day and night,

took classes, learned from others,

bought altimeters, your own parachute,

and you loved to watch others land.

We still don’t know exact circumstances,

You were making your descent,

you and another got too close,

your parachutes entangled.

“Don’t delay, cut away,” you cut away your parachute,

the other diver’s chute inflated, your reserve did not,

A freefall from 800 feet

takes 6 seconds to the ground,

This is all the time you had,

as you fell into the arms of God.

Six seconds of descent,

six seconds of lift and flight,

God carried you gently, through the doorway

to new worlds of grace, and light.

cfblack, 7-12-25

Posted in Family, grief, love | Leave a Comment »

poem for Jasmine

July 7, 2025

They say your body has been released.

I look at your picture, your beautiful face,

Remember your laughter, your determination

to be ALL that you could be.

I look at your picture, your flowing blonde hair,

Your bright blue eyes, your faith and love.

You had the bluest eyes in the family,

Now you see all the worlds of God.

I look at your picture, your smiling face,

Do you know, how much I love you?

Send me a sign, please be my angel,

Be happy, wherever it is you are.

I can’t picture life without you,

You were my bright and shining star!

The way you fought what life threw at you,

Wrote in journals,

Memorized prayers,

You felt so free when you were flying,

Now you fly through the worlds of God.

Your broken body, your broken bones,

It was immediate, you felt no pain,

You cut your chute, the other one lived,

Saving one is better than losing two,

And whoever you are, know we are HAPPY for you.

Jasmine, you did everything right,

You did the only thing left to do,

You were perfect in every way,

We all have flaws, but you had few,

I don’t know how we will live without you,

Please pray for me, as I pray for you.

cfblack, 6-25-25

Posted in Family, grief | Leave a Comment »

Loss

July 7, 2025

I go to bed to dream of you,

to take away the feeling of your loss,

to lie in the darkness in peace, and think of you.

I don’t dream of you,

awake with first light, hear the birds singing,

imagine it is you, singing in the next world.

The loss returns.

I feel your lovely spirit always with me, wherever I go,

wherever I am. But still, I miss you.

Today I will work on pressing flowers from your funeral,

watch videos about molds and resin, to create momentos

for family members.

It gives me something to do, while I think of you.

cfblack, 7-1-25

Posted in dreams, grief, various personal musings | Leave a Comment »

Morning haiku

July 7, 2025

Morning comes again,

after the grief of night, when

we are missing you.

cfblack, 7-7-25

Posted in grief, haiku, morning | Leave a Comment »

2 immigrants: Gerrit and Mathilda

June 14, 2025

2 immigrants: Gerrit Gerrits Plantinga and his wife, Mathilda (“Tilke”) Wobbes van Vliet. Gerrit was born 28 Dec. 1847 in Stiens, the Netherlands, which is part of Friesland, a coastal area of Netherlands. He was my great-great-grandfather and immigrated to America in 1890. His wife, “Tilke”, was born 9 Dec. 1843, in Hallum, another city in Friesland. Gerrit and Tilke had 8 children, all born in the Netherlands before they immigrated to America. (SO IF CONDITIONS IN THEIR LIFETIME WERE LIKE THOSE OF TODAY, THEY WOULD ALL FACE DEPORTATION OR IMPRISONMENT JUST FOR COMING HERE.) Their 3rd child was Wopke (later called William) Plantinga, my great-grandfather, father of my Grandpa George. Wopke had immigrated 8 yrs. before them, in 1882. Gerrit and Tilke arrived on Oct.18, 1890 with destination city being the neighborhood of Kensington, on the south side of Chicago. They probably had other relatives already there since they listed a neighborhood of Chicago. Four of their younger children traveled with them: Antje (Anna), Bootje (Bertha), Lieuwkje (Lucia), and Rinske (Rosie). In 1910, Gerrit and Matilda lived on 103rd St., Chicago, and he worked as a laborer in a “car shop”. His language is listed as English, Matilde’s as Dutch, so she probably never learned to speak English well. They stayed in Chicago, died & were buried there, in Mount Greenwood cemetery, Cook County, IL, Gerrit in 1919, Mathilda in 1935.

cfblack, 6-14-25

Posted in family history, family tree research | Leave a Comment »

Immigrants

June 13, 2025

Here are 2 immigrants, Klass Hanstra and Gieske Ijkamp Hanstra, my great-great-grandparents. They are parents to Katherine Hanstra, who married my great-grandfather, Wopke Plantinga. Katherine and Wopke had 11 children, my grandfather being the oldest. My grandfather, George Plantenga, was born 5 months after Katherine & Wopke’s marriage, so they never celebrated his birthday which was Oct.15, 1893. Wopke changed his name to William. Klass and Gieske changed their names to Clarence and Gertrude, here in America. The goal was to sound as “English” as possible, since that was the dominant group in America.

Klass and Gieske were born in Friesland, the Netherlands. Friesland is an area on the NW coast of Holland (Netherlands). They spoke their own language of “Frisian” as well as Dutch. Klass was specifically born in Stiens, Leeuwarderadeel, Friesland, Netherlands, on June 2, 1828. Gieske was born in an area of Friesland called Het Bildt on April 22, 1838. Their marriage was Sept.1, 1864. They arrived in America in 1894, with onley TWO of their 6 children. Only “Pietje” (age 18) and “Tjitske” (age 11) are listed on the passengr list. For “occupations”, father Taeke said “laborer”, mother Gieske said “wife” and their 2 children were “servants”. (I think that meant they would work as domestic servants, which most of the young girls did.) All their 6 children were: 1 boy (Taeke, later “Charles” in America); and 5 girls: Grietje (Margaret), Trijntje (Katherine), Pietje (Nellie), Jantje (Jessie), and Tjitske (Jennie). Their first-born is listed as “Levinloos kind”, meaning “lifeless child”. —- They settled where the Dutch tended to go: Chicago, and later moved south of there to my hometown, Lafayette, Indiana, which is where they are buried. NONE of them worried about their workplace being raided or themselves being handcuffed in front of their children and taken to some cold PRISON or DEPORTED back to HOLLAND!! They also remained poor in America, mostly the men working odd jobs or FARMING and selling vegetables. They were serious Puritan-type people. It’s amazing I have a picture of them.

cfblack, 6-13-2025

Posted in Family, family history, Immigrants, stories in the news | Leave a Comment »

Life before the Internet

May 27, 2025

Before the internet

we used telephones,

not in our hands, but on kitchen wall.

We had to take turns, we had to be home,

and all we could do was talk.

I can even remember a “party line”

we shared with other households,

Before making a call, we picked up the phone

to see if our neighbor was on the line.

If they were, we had to wait

until they finished theirs.

It’s hard to even imagine today

the life we had back then.

More contemplation, more time alone,

no random AI listening,

None of that. NONE of that.

More personal time, more privacy,

Unless we were talking on a phone at home,

we were talking face-to-face.

No texting, no zooming, no Instagram or “X”,

no FaceBook, or Snapchat, no TicTok

or Messenger,

no teenagers worried what their friends thought

of their latest video.

No 24/7 bullying,

when we went home, it stopped.

— Last night I mentioned something,

never googled it, or searched.

Today it appeared on FaceBook

while scrolling messages.

Men now have AI girlfriends — they never disagree,

Women have AI boyfriends — “they always listen to me.”

We need face-to-face conversation, holding each other’s hand,

Sharing difficult topics and trying to understand,

I have no patience for texting, and I like my time alone,

So please excuse my slow response and not answering my phone.

cfblack 5-27-25

Posted in childhood, family history, Technology / FaceBook, the times we live in | Leave a Comment »

Road Trip

May 25, 2025

Riding in the back seat of a car to Charleston
Takes me back to 10 years old,
Riding in the backseat of a station wagon
For days on end. No air conditioning,

To California, San Diego, Disneyland, Yosemite,
Northern Redwoods, Grand Canyon, Zion, the Badlands,
Looking for fossils, camping, riding a stage coach or a horse,
sand dunes, walking trails, the Great Lakes, waterfalls,
Canada, Lake Huron, Mexico, a bull fight.
my dad’s yellow raft, with him paddling a river.

My family was adventurous, these were our summers, when my dad escaped the stress of his academic life,
These were our times, family vacations,
Times for us to get away, spend days together.

You think you have a lifetime, then realize it’s over,
and these are the moments you have.
The days you look back on, the times you cherish,
the memories are what last forever.

cfblack, 5-25-25

Posted in childhood, Family, vacations | Leave a Comment »

to work on later

May 20, 2025

I have this thought for a poem I’ll work on later. It is to speak to poets about why I don’t want to read at a poetry reading. Title may be “I don’t want to read.”

I don’t want to read.

Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a Comment »

LAST DAY

April 28, 2025

Last day.
Printing final exams to be taken in person
at desks made in the 1970s,
Phones and laptops put away,
they suffer withdrawal until test is done.
Some never did assignments,
their grades dropped out of sight,
now ask, “What can I do?”
I ask the same question, what can I do
to spark your interest
to learn,
to read,
to write your own thoughts, in your own voice,
which is SO NEEDED today,
but remains hidden behind AI, ChatGPT,
and copying your friend’s paper.
cfblack, 4-28-25

Posted in Sociology, teaching, the times we live in | Leave a Comment »

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