To the Reader:

This book is not intended to injure, intimidate, or insult any one person or institution. Its contents merely reflect recorded thoughts, some deliberate and carefully formulated, others very spontaneous and sporadic. Whatever the case, it was prepared with the knowledge that such thoughts could initiate or nurture opposition to, if not complete rejection of, whatever has been stated or implied. My intentions for this manuscript have always been honorable, harboring no malice nor wishing any in return. My words are mere impressions, some good and others bad, concerning my life to this date. If you will, here is a general and personal testimony for and against this life, a life I did not welcome or reject, a life too dependent upon others to be truly my own.

F. B.







Reflections




I Am What I Am


I am what I am for whatever reason I
choose to be.

My God has given me those gifts which
may or may not sustain me
through this life, but the effort
will be made to give some
meaning to His Grace and Love.

I shall not betray His judgment
by presuming that I, alone, have been
the architect of my destiny.

I know full well that I have not been and
never will be, no matter what
accolades may deafen my senses.

I am what I am, never once denying His
importance, and to do so, even in jest,
would be to ransom my soul
to time and circumstance and all
manner of false epitaphs.

Let it suffice that when hurled through
this galaxy a mere naked form,
born to nothing and wanting less,
I will, for whatever reason,
challenge my suspected insignificance,
for in the company of God,
I can become my own true self
and so much more...


Dedications




Dedications should be viewed/with delicate apprehension/ so careful are these testimonies/inked with subtle deception/all too eager to trap/the. onrushing ego/and intimidate the unsuspecting friend/who no longer remembers/ the magnitude of his influence; if caring at all/this resurrected recipient is left/to scratch his conscience/in utter frustration/while the author's name echoes/amid flashing episodes/so distant is the deed/ that prompted this belated praise/or clever intrusion.




Education

Why prevent reading failures? Let us hope that thoughts so generated by the following author will give renewed reason for such a desperate search:

There is a need for comprehensive and realistic teachertraining programs in cooperation with nearby colleges and universities whose expertise would serve as an invaluable resource in preparing teachers for a more productive studentteacher relationship:

"We expect them (teachers) to be sensitive human

Allan Fromme, Ph.D.



* * *

In reviewing the book in my mind, what remains most impressive is that one particular human being had made a gallant effort to rescue thousands of children from certain educational and social suicide. No amount of money, personnel, facilities, or recognition made the difference. Instead, the very nature of the man performed a near miracle amid the 20th century ruins of central Harlem.


F. B.



* * *

Man, I do realize, lives in a world of inconsistencies, neither a candidate for sainthood nor possessed of animal detachment, somehow removed from a promised catalyst of peaceful existence, however remote the possibilities, yet never quite willing to abandon the search and suffer the consequences.

If man has truly been made in the image of a greater Being, then much remains to be done to even justify his prolonged development. The world, it might be said, reduces to nations; nations reduce to the individual man; and man fluctuates between sanity and madness, between peace and war, between the heater and the assassin, never qui F. B.




A Family is a Family



You can curse your brother, use his hair tonic, steal his loose change, lie about his good looks, and embarrass his only girl, but God help you if before the priest says "Amen" and the earth swallows him up, you haven't made peace with his memory.


For Every Love That Passes On



No Apology



Why this awful cadence to always wait
When saying what should be said,
Doing what should be done
Beyond the safe confines of that date
When one discovers a friend is dead,
And all sadness starts to run
This shallow course of reason
And hopeless wishes push against infinity,
Perhaps to claim that tearful season
When that friend will one day be me.


Teacher Burnout



I see no real reason in continuing in such a void as this. Of the countless species crowding this planet, man, first of all, should have the capacity to remain a free agent, despite all civil laws designed to enslave his movements and thoughts. It is well that such a distinction can be made lest we should smother in our own indifference ... being led through a maze of contradictions like sheep to the slaughter. (1977)