Best Mississippi Poems

Mississippi Moments

History journeys along with its meandering flow as
a wide birth from bank to bank has eyes straining
trying to see across to the other side, far too wide.
Muddy rivulets stirred up by the river boats drift by
and my dreams become intertwined with what
I have read...

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darkness approaches
your time is at hand!

bullfrogs arise!
strike up the band!

wild rice surrounds you
your kingdom awaits

guard and protect her
'till shadows abate...

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Her strong and mighty currents flow
From Ohio Valley
South to the Gulf of Mexico
Alligator Alley...

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Limerick: Once a mincing Mrs. from Mississippi

Once a mincing Mrs. from Mississippi*
Went to a bank for a fiddle-d-dee
But her girdle got stuck
And the “SS” came unstuck
That’s why Missis ends as a double P..

*No aspersions cast on Mississippians here;
the term refers to the Paleozoic era in...

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Chapter 11: The Problem with Lakes

Canoes and larger lakes don’t mix well I’m afraid,
The rough equivalent of a margarita and a toothpick.
On the Mississippi a lake means a dam somewhere,
The scenic route buried now under dam water
Its prurient writhing now veiled from prying eyes
By puritanical...

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Sumac burns bluffside
                White Pelicans unfurl flight
                       ...

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Overflow of the waters of Lake Itaska
You carry your wealth to the waiting world, 
Mighty Mississippi, half savior, half sewer, 
Plant and animal wastes, dissolved minerals, 
Venting prairie deluge, dividing a Nation, 
Exposed aquifer of Great Plains, home of Buffalo ghosts, 
And their equally threatened...

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I went out to a bar last night
It was empty except for one
So I struck up some conversation
Askin “man where are you from?”

He said “I’m from Two Pillow, Mississippi
A small town, deep down South”
Clearly he was Southern
As he drew words from his mouth

“You mean Tupelo?”...

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Extra weight no longer a problem for shallow water, 
We bulked up for the next leg of our journey, 
Water containers, even some canned goods
An acceptable luxury in our seventeen foot canoe, 
A canvas topping lashed everything in securely, 
Offered some weather proofing for sensitive...

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Mighty curving snake courses
Monstrous volume Mississippi
Like great dark horses
That in the spring feels zippy
Whose frozen waters now like ornithopappi


Contest entry:Five Lines Down
Sponsor: Brian Strand...

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My desserts not by special rules
The cause of many mouths of drools   

My special pie is a` La Mode
Makes finicky taste buds explode

Now my Mississippi mud
Why, it brings a mosaic flood

Then there’s my Peach cobbler
Many a  big tummy wobblier

Now there is my...

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MISSISSIPPI

M y love for the magnolia tree
I s a botanist dream.
S omething special to see
S o white, magnolia gleams!
I f I had a choice of trees,
S omeone suggestion was 
S pruce,
I would say I like my State’s tree.
P lus the bloom is as white as...

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Chapter 10: Modern Dams & Locks

A highpoint of our whole trip, a lock and dam,
Originally St. Anthony Falls in Minneapolis - St. Paul.
Can you imagine how Spanish explorers felt
Entering California’s Golden Gate for the first time?
It lay undiscovered for over two hundred years
Of coastal exploration...

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'Camp Chippewa, ' its tennis and rifle range, X-Class sailing, 
And classic 'Old Town' canvas covered wooden canoes, 
Not the low-class aluminum canoes of a 'Camp Thunderbird.'
Cass Lake - garden of the Mississippi's hidden currents, 
Nature's setting for Star Island's fresh blue berry thickets, 
Brisk,...

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mississippi
beneath live oaks on east bank
thousands of frogs 
sing their songs in unison
my heart keeps time...

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