Best 1957 Poems

I had just left the Fairgrounds Race Track with my dad,  where I won $13.00 on a nag whose name I forget and Dad won nothing, which mattered not since his goal was to 'celebrate' the night with his Candy Apple Red....newly bored out...

Continue reading...

The reading of Villon poems at West Berlin’s Free University, Winter Semester 1957-58
                          for Fleur Adcock (b. February 10, 1934)

	The...

Continue reading...

A dirty old sidewalk
runs in front of grandma's house
with bumps and cracks from the roots
of ancient white-oak

Armed with cane poles and sack lunches
crickets and freshly dug earth worms
we meander down to the levee
barefoot in careless summers

One low spot beneath
a straggly Chinaberry
filled with pitch-black delta dirt
washed...

Continue reading...

Each time my Auntie Rosa went to shop in the High Street,
She’d bring us back a pink-iced bun; it was our special treat.
We’d take them up to Grandad’s (we preferred to eat them there)
We’d scoff them in the kitchen, in his big old Windsor chair.

And...

Continue reading...

Standing here feeling the constancy of the trade winds blowing my hair around
I marvel at the bright whiteness of the birds flying in their madly screaming love of 
life
Again I try to focus on one. It’s a futile task for even my young eyes
How they...

Continue reading...

Laid down on the sofa today, memory

taking me back to teen years of so long ago.

When friend Danny and I would go down 

town on Saturday afternoon to see a movie

at the Paramount, a movie palace with a wide

screen, that would put the theaters of...

Continue reading...

amidst cavorting delightfully, enjoying thorough
frolicking gingerly, foreign hick hating slo
hip-hopping insouciantly sustaining row

biological status quo
kvetching lamely moreso mother became pro
naturally physically rumbling, 
   heard all the way in Oslo

   supposedly twerking, undulating vivaciously
wantonly x2c wisely yielded – nada no
  ...

Continue reading...

It had been a long train ride for me then and it had been fun
I was coming home after Marine Corps training was finished and my tour had just begun
So I had thirty days of leave to enjoy before I had to report for duty
And...

Continue reading...

Me.
Unique,

Strong,
Fragile old girl, gentle questioner,
unshakeable hand,
Curious eye, quiet ear....

Continue reading...

In search of long lost orchards
where apple blossoms bloom;
an ole white ashen farmhouse
and corncrib-playhouse rooms.

Searching for the scent of pine
where lingering laughter lies,
for the summer days gone by
and seashells on the tide.

Hungering for spruce gum chaw
we dug from crooks of trees
for the tart and bittersweet
memories...

Continue reading...

Biological parents minted circa December 1st, 1957

Amelie Beth Harris
fresh out womb blurted "ahoy"
melded as genetic
deoxynucleic acid alloy
awkward first time parents

natural affection did employ
Boyce and Harriet Harris
shed tears of joy,
and feted yearly birthdays,

thus much appreciation ye did buoy
bestowed unconditional love,
thus tis impossible mission
to compensate, thus thank......

Continue reading...

Crinkling crinolines creating
  a ballooning circle rising
    out from my shins.  
      They are itching.
        Socks neatly rolled into new maryjanes that
      ...

Continue reading...

City life, for kids, before the onslaught of helicopter parents and mandatory parental involvement in every aspect of growing up.  We played baseball, no umpires, the bases pieces of cardboard, scratched in dirt, or chalked on the pavement.  Four neighborhoods abutted each other....

Continue reading...

What kind of car is that? My eleven grandchildren scream.
It has driven by slowly, and it is my childhood dream.
a 1957 Chevy, sleek, black, full of chrome, I say.
Coveting the red leather seats as it drives slowly away.

It doesn’t look like any contraption we have...

Continue reading...

Mythical wizard hag sits on her haughty throne
Who is she? Some whisper, perhaps thinking crone.
Magical and mystical, she is rarely sitting alone.
Her power animals surround her, hoping for a bone.

She gets to make all their decisions, she is in charge.
Her ideas and ideals are incredibly...

Continue reading...