Best Missouri Poems

When the full moon rises,
and the stars start to glow.
Down to that old creek bank,
is where I like to go.

A few leaves still hanging,
shaking in the breeze.
Holding on for dear life 
to them persimmon trees.

Out across the gully,
other side of the bridge.
Coon hounds hot on...

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As a country boy, up in the hills,
Life was tough, not much for frills.
I remember it well, yes, even now,
When spring time came and it was time to plow.
Afore sun up came, I was out of bed,
And pull the harness down, in the shed.
Then to...

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Wind chimes whistle low
      Sticky, sweet sugar maple
        leaves, red, wave hello...

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ozark mountains call
watch my uncle ski barefoot
on a broomstick too...

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Before I understood how life 
was a weave of intricacies
My town was a wonderful world 
to serve my childish fantasies. 

I was a young and healthy lad
a source of mother’s pride and joy 
with sun bleached hair and sky-blue eyes.
just your average wide-eyed boy 

On...

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I write poetry not to change the world,
but to change the way I feel.
Sometimes it’s just made-up fantasy,
sometimes, something a little more real.

I’m not a sophisticated poet you see,
using litotes, anapest, or alliteration.
Though I’ve been known to use an aphorism or two,
when talking about the...

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My Valley

Tucked away in the north-central part of the state, about ten miles or so from where the clear and slow-moving water of the Grand River mixes with the quickly rolling mud of the Missouri River. Was my isolated valley. A tiny insignificant place dotted...

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Out in the field is a bed of chicory,
down along the ditch, wild hydrangeas grow.
Dandelions in the yard are quite tasty,
so is the duckweed by the side of the road.

Wild lettuce, lamb’s quarter, and some wild onions,
there’s watercress, fennel, grape leaves, and cherries.
We also have...

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Driving down those dark and dusty country roads. The rocks and rubber are singing in harmony as rows of brown corn flash and disappear. You turn on the radio and we let its melodies form images in our brains. We’re ready to ‘Drift Away on...

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There’s a house out across the creek, 
just an old rundown two-room shack.
Each time I drive out past it now, 
those memories come flooding back.

It’s the house that held my childhood, 
where all fifteen of us were raised.
A loving piece of treasured youth, 
only a...

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So no matter how down and alone you are feeling right now, know that it will pass. Each of us will walk through the depths of our winter at some time in our lives. We may feel isolated and frozen, with no end in sight....

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Our family gatherings have always been filled with nostalgic glimpses into a much simpler life. A life shown to us young’uns through the many stories that would always be told of an old shack hidden from the world behind tall weeds, thick patches of blackberry...

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I.	  The Settlement

          Hickory bark bluffs
          at the blend of two 
          rivers.
    ...

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Our riverbank launch at dawn
where dense forest chills the breeze,
where cottonwood leaves flutter like wings,
and weeping willow penumbras tease.

Glistening, rippling turquoise water churns.
Crystal swirling pools symphonic and aglow,
elliptic aluminum crafts coast over craggy stones, 
riverbed scattered rocks gleam clearly below.

Current River splits between sandbar silt.
Our...

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Every person’s destiny is created by a single point in time, and we are forever tied to that event. That moment when the world starts to make sense and the pages in the book of our life unfold to reveal a glimpse of what will...

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