Best In The South Poems
Summer Nights in the South
Green fireflies blink in the quiet of night
and our sleeping old dog heaves a sigh.
Dreaming, she sprints through a youthful blue sky
chasing delicate clouds, cotton-white.
A red-sunset tanager* colors the warm air
from a perch in the majestic oak limbs above
professing by lullaby, sincerely devoted love,
like some sublimely recited evening prayer.
I lay back and smile, through the leaves, at the moon
to the sound of crops rippling in the breeze
thinking how precious are nights such as these
when alone, with the Earth I commune.
*Summer Tanagers (Piranga rubra) are native to the southern U.S. but are not true tanagers. They are actually members of the cardinal family.
08/01/15
Submission for Contest: Nature Poems Only
Hosted by: Shadow Hamilton
Jack Frost got me hustling
To clear my car of excess snow
Bare brown branches bustling
As frigid blue breeze blows
The forecast was right or wrong
As I sit in the car heating it up
On the radio red Christmas songs
Sing along makes freezing fun enough
I watch a parent play with child
Shaking tree to sprinkle white flurries
Warm eyes that twinkle as they smile
Despite chill no one really hurries
When it snows in the south
People take notice in awe gaze
Kids squeal with joy so loud
As they gather it in hands amazed
Purple panic shoppers raspberry react
Buying bread milk eggs in excess
We giggle at their inability to relax
And see snow days as God blessed
Despite the nights spent so cold
Someone who lacks winter heat
May be a poor homeless soul
Or you due to a car wreck on street
Snow in the south is a white dream
Everything seems to take it easy
Coffee tea and cocoa hot we drink
With warm hearts despite freezing
The Finest Antebellum Mansion in the South
By Elton Camp
Windsor was near the banks of the Mississippi River
Extreme luxury, size, beauty and comfort it did deliver
The manor was completed just before the Civil War
It’s builder, Smith Daniell, couldn’t asked for more
Only a few weeks after his palatial home was complete
Its wealthy owner became ill and his own death did meet
His heirs were left a four-story house & a huge plantation
It depended on slave labor that was ruining the nation
Windsor had twenty-five rooms, each with a fireplace
And running water and inside baths the house did grace
A rare feature indeed: that two dumbwaiters were found
From floor-to-floor more easily to move the food around
A ballroom on the fourth floor had an observatory atop
The rigors of a civil war threatened to bring it to a stop
It came to be used by rebs and yanks, so it did survive
And the family who owned it managed to stay alive
The mansion become a social center for the entire state
Invited guests arrived early, partied and the stayed late
But, in 1890 to Windsor the greatest disaster then befell
A guest left a lighted cigar on the balcony and it then fell
After the fire, only the thirty-foot-high columns did stand
And an architectural treasure disappeared from the land
The magnificent ruins remind of the South’s glorious past
And that no civilization built on human suffering can last
If a glimpse into the way planters lived you wish to see,
Go only a few miles from Port Gibson and there it will be
The ruins will remind us of some ancient Grecian temple
But built at the expense of slaves kept uneducated & simple
For pictures of the mansion go to http://www.scribd.com/doc/57710764/The-Finest-
Antebellum-Mansion-in-the-South
The picture of the ruins was taken years ago by the noted
writer Eudora Welty of Jackson, Mississippi. Some of the
English faculty at my college actually knew Eudora and had
studied under her at various workshops.
Just North of South Carolina
Is where this country boy was born
All I really cared in those growing years
Was the running through woods kind of fun
Those days I fondly remember
There's no way you can bad mouth the South
With water up to our knees chasing crawfish in creeks
And anything else nature would allow
Even squirrel hunting as younguns
So my Granny could make us a pie
No secret better kept than eating straight off the land
Whether it was squirrels or apples to find
Granny always made delicious pies
Always in church every Sunday
Paying the Lord his due respects
For all that we have and all that he gives
Plus for the forgiveness of sins
Then after church when there weren't no chores
We'd kiss and tell our parents goodbye
They'd not see us again till we heard the bell ring
Come about supper time
There's something that's to be said about being a kid
Growing up down in the South
Where there's no better time below the Mason Dixon line
But that you'd have to find out for yourself
Some years winter is very mild.
Warm afternoons to sit in the sun.
Or do something fun, maybe wild
outside, instead of coming undone.
Some years winter in the south vary
About every ten years or so
There'll be deep snow in our zonary
Freezing rain, sleet from gray clouds flow
All in all, there are emerging patterns
Warm up, rain, turns cold, colder then
One more cold night, rain clouds that turn
The area warmer again
Date: January 17, 2023
Sponsor: Tania Kitchens
Contest: 12 Lines Of Rhyme-Winter Nature Themed
A GENTLEMAN HERE IN THE SOUTH
(A Southern Cad)
By Roy Merritt
You know I'm astute fellow
my wisdom has to much to admire
I've seduced all the young ladies
And with their domestics conspired
I've chiseled my business partners
I've been with my friend's sweet wife
A frisky young lady
who thinks she's the center of life
And the law is always snooping
Lurking around and about
Cos' I've got a terrible reputation
For a gentleman here in the south
Oh I'm quite hospitable
Charm it fits me like a glove
I'm always eager to earn a dollar
And tempt some young thing to love
And best she be a rich girl
Yes a rich girl best to be about
For a man they've grown suspicious of
As a gentleman here in the south
And so I always have a ticket
Tucked into my coat and prepared
To allow me passage to flee this town
And most assuredly spared
For if they don't lynch me
I'll certainly be put a rail
And driven out of town
like someone bound for hell
They don't like having such people
Walking the streets and about
Especially someone they are suspicious of
As gentleman here in south
A most pathetic gentleman
Here in the splendiferous south
Born in the South
By Franklin Price
7/17/2016
Born in the South
The year was 1945
There have been so many changes
Since I have been alive
The races separated
By the colors of their skin
Inequalities existed
Don't know where I should begin
Separate but not equal
Were the blacks compared to whites
Could not use the same facilities
Did not have those equal rights
Could not dine together
The black men and the white
Or have each as a neighbor
We know now it wasn't right
Went through all those changes
Until we've reached today
Inequality is gone
Or so the politicians say
Rights will not be equal
Until the people say it's so
Cannot mention race primarily
When speaking of the ones we know
Cannot point fingers at the past
When the south owned many slaves
Must cease and desist with all of that
Or will be separate to our graves
Banned in the south
The sun visits his old haunts
In the north
Ya'll want to com'fer supper?
Yep we's having greens, fat back,
tators, chitlins, peppa sauce,
pickled peaches and cairn
muffins. I seez ya when ya gets he-a.
Bye now ya he-a.
Tell ya maw Iz said hey.
Chil'in don't gets ya britches durty in the red clay.
Com' a runnin when comp'ny gets hea, chillins
and warsh tha grit of ya, 'fore I dust your britches good.
By Dars Ann
submitted in the dialect contest
dialect of the southern states, USA
I grew up in Georgia and we have red clay,
tall short leaf pines, great oaks and plenty of old knotty pine barns in the landscapes.
Hot in the south sitting on the porch
Fanning your face with a hand fan
Dressed in a beautiful white dress
With a cold mint julep in hand
Miss. JENNIFER, yes Miss. JAN
Do you believe what that SunShine Smile,
Said about me?
Her last poem was all about Me, Me, Me (Just kidding Sunshine)
She only thinks of herself living in luxury
Her poems seem to go Norway with a Rhyme
Now that Bobby is a handsome man
Oh tell me Mrs. JAN
I saw him in the field with his straw hat on
Working next to Gershon W.W. was fast asleep
Without a peep, but there was one so cute
He was the Only Silent One out of the whole bunch
Here comes Richard your husband he shot old turkey Tom I guess we are having him for dinner
Shhhhhhh, No more Gossiping
a 5-7-5 (not sure if it could be called a senryu)
In some Southern states,
nature rivaled Corona.
We worshiped at home.
April 12, 2020
Life in the South
Dr. James E. Martin
©July, 2013
Southern livin’ is mighty fine.
About this many often opine.
We love our laid back way of life
And don’t really like bickering and strife.
Iced sweet tea and butterbeans
Are common here as are turnip greens.
Many criticize our Southern drawl,
They can’t understand why we still say “ya’ll”.
We like huntin’ and fishin’ and such,
We enjoy sittin’ on the porch a whole bunch.
Football is almost a religion here,
Yes, we live in a real neat atmosphere.
“South” is more than a direction, you see,
It’s a place many love to be!
If these statements were not actually true,
Why do folks retire here as they do?
i was born in a shack
by the railroad track
i wasn't alone
it was our home
no doudt it was the rout
yes i was
BORN IN THE SOUTH
WHAT’S FARE IN THE SOUTH
Everything Southern
fried — pickles, bacon
green tomatoes and
chicken — with cornbread,
biscuits and gravy.
...and so forth
y’all!
7/14/2018
This
July
Caught my eye
With some nice rain
Not one hundred here
I'm left somewhat afraid
What does tomorrow hold, friend
Will there be some variety
Will the heat rise, tornadoes surprise
"Fear not," God said, " I've got total control".