Harvey Hockstein Rhymes: From Hardware to Software

Born to immigrant parents and growing up during the Depression, Harvey learned many life lessons as he grew, some harder than others. He loved school, especially geography and social studies, but eventually joined his father in his hardware business. While he was famous in town as “Harvey Hardware” and made a good living for his family, there was not much time left for creative outlets. When his daughter, Marilyn, passed away from Hodgkin’s lymphoma in 1987, Harvey joined The Compassionate Friends to share his grief and also began writing as an outlet for his emotions. Over time, his poems moved away from loss and grief to other observations on life. In Harvey Hockstein Rhymes, these thoughts and musings come together to allow all the guests of this life to share in his journey. Once Harvey started writing, he could not be stopped. Through computer struggles and e-mail issues, he persevered to bring us his thoughts of love, life, family, loss, and the universe. In sweet, funny, and imaginative verse, we catch a glimpse of what Harvey has been thinking through all these years. Being an overachiever, it took Harvey only eighty-plus years to bring us this book, which is comprised of just a sample of his many thoughts and may be called a short rendition of the last eighty-six years.