You know why Hippos and Rhinos
never get heart attacks?
Because they don’t
stir-fry their veggies in oil,
Nor add salt or sugar
to their desserts.
You know why monkeys
keep monkeying around?
Because they belong to
a Banana Republic.
You know why corns are so sweet?
Because they are all ears
and hear everything
but do not gossip. Say nothing.
You know why dogs fetch
sticks or balls for their masters?
Because
their masters clean after them.
Categories:
holler, funny,
Form: Free verse
Stepped out on the deck as rain begins, Wind.
This is NOT a Summer storm with rainbow peaks.
Sans rescindment, the tip of the iceberg is here.
Leaves tickled by playful drops, flirtation of petting.
A smattering of autumn’s crop of leaflets color
the floor of the backyard moss. Betwixt seasons,
the late hurricane Helene gently rocks the boat,
for now, until she shows her victorious strength.
A low rumble as if a stomach needs to be fueled.
Not to be fooled, this fray will show its muscle.
Thank God for the warning, and early at that.
In past years, God’s mercy was needed in the trenches.
Inland Georgia, not so bad, but we need to stay indoors.
Stops along the Florida coast are more precarious.
Heavy rainfall, fast moving, tropical force winds
headed in my direction. Possible spin-ups.
It’s all a curiosity! A break from the mundane. Insane
to realize tomorrow it will be intensely gusting. Candles
might be lighting up my living room. Staying charged,
and in the know. Glower of the heap and holler comes soon.
Categories:
holler, weather,
Form: Free verse
It is simple and plain
A few potholes along the way
It is West Virginia that’s to be expected
It is a road just like any other
Divided into two lanes
One way takes me away
For work
For daily life occurrences
For a weekend getaway
I know this road well
I drive it every day
I know it bends
I know its dips
I know where I want to pretend it is a race track
There are days when I forget I am driving
and end safely at my destination anyway
Up hills
Down hollers
In-between the mountains
Is the road I drive
And it will always bring me back home
No matter where it takes me
Categories:
holler, adventure, america, car, environment,
Form: Free verse
Why do I sing such a memory?
You're gone now, I've sung you away.
Recalling a song
or humming a tune
seems not to be enough.
No, I have to sing, to holler, to bellow
and then that recollection will depart;
such noise will take its place
and singe so many ears.
And then they will cringe.
(4 Oct 2023)
Categories:
holler, feelings, song, surreal,
Form: Free verse
Hidden among the trees up Jones Creek holler
In an old rustic log cabin with only three rooms
Where a family of twelve lives in squalor
Hidden among the trees up Jones Creek holler
The father has a reputation for being a brawler
The mother expertly sews Halloween costumes
Hidden among the trees up Jones Creek holler
In an old rustic log cabin with only three rooms
Hidden among the trees up Jones Creek holler
Where a family of twelve lives in squalor
The father has a reputation for being a brawler.
The mother expertly sews Halloween costumes
In an old rustic log cabin with only three rooms
She also makes and sells old-timey cane brooms.
written July 18, 2021
[This is a "trionet," a poetry form I invented
It is made up of the standard 8-line triolet
and an additional six-line stanza bringing it
to a total of 14 lines after the manner of a
sonnet.]
Categories:
holler, life, mountains, poverty,
Form: Other
The Boasting sun explain its rays
blare glare glare let the seasons charm
Assemble its warm
Hey there we're here
Thanksgiving gone merry on
Sharing days of Hardy laughter
Sharing is fair, what comes after
Animations of
aggravations nations BLOOM
AND BLOOM AGAIN
Cheer cheer world's fair and fairer
Then flare-up maximum cheers
Holiday haze here
monumental craze
Christmas is upon us
Gracious holidays
My dear eggnog laced
With pleasurable
Sensation all the
Merrier happy holiday
No objection here freer
Freer share care at the gates
Hollering to make a Major mention
At the gates cheer cheers
Holler holler louder
We declare we declare
Outrageousness sprinkling
Courageousness ALL HAIL NEW YEAR
Who shall we ever be
With flawless dignity we
Have tempered forceful greetings
Destined and determined to be free
Categories:
holler, anxiety, celebration, courage, humanity,
Form: Rhyme
If it were not for a song
Midnight train to Georgia
Little child runnin' wild
Fellows mellow hanging
Holler holler!
Ketchup sandwiches
Home alone
Aah Dem days
Mommy's home!
Pity pat chit chat
Who's the leader?
Trouble maker all
this trouble who's to
Save ya right tonight
Ya goin' home.
Dodge ball in the hall
Somebody hit ya hit
'em harder.
No more father.
Rip that change
Nothing was ever the
Same again.
Time passes and he's
Farther away.
Holler! Movin' stride
Against the tide.
Holler. HOLLER!
For all the good times
And good byes
Little child runnin' wild.
Way back there brothers
And sisters cousins
Up stairs and down stairs
And NEW YEARS EVE
party years
Loudness never quiet
Hallway mallee last tag
1 2 3 get off my father's
Apple tree!
Time passes. A cake walk.
You ain't my mother!
You ain't my father!
Don't tell me what to do!
Little child.
You GOT YA SELF.
Categories:
holler, anger, angst, boy, brother,
Form: Cinquain
I knew no other way to cry out and release this happening.
I didn't intend to hurt you, I didn't intend for fantasies to hold truths outside my house yearning!
Passion can’t lift itself from this notepad fast enough and express the light outlining the shadows of my zombies.
I am here but my mind is where my heart dreams to be.
I’m screaming at the top of my lungs so that each sound captures its on solo.
Do you hear me?
Standing in the sands of time the distance reels off mirages of us that could be while quick sand consumes the actuality of us.
Voids are unavoidable due to the strength of inanimate objects called LOVED OWED!
I can’t make your heart feel something it wont just as I cant make my soul pretend to feel.
Undress me naked and read the bold prints that define all of me as I am.
Ink tattooed deep in the canvas of my skin.
Damn holler if you here me because imma speak softly so I know you are listening.
This is a one chapter, one page, one word hard shell book.
Write your adventure with the second chapter, the second page..... The second word!
Categories:
holler, life, lost love, love,
Form: Rhyme
The Queen of Dillard Holler
By Elton Camp
Dillard Holler is down by the railroad track
Some places the street would be a cul de sac
Except that from the very front to the back,
Every house is nothing but a run-down shack
In that place, Matilda is the reigning queen
She looks like thirty, but she’s only eighteen
Matilda’s scepter is a brown bottle of beer
Her throne’s a chair on the front porch, I hear
And when princely suitors may come to call,
Matilda regally welcomes them, one and all
To the Queen, a bit of tribute they will pay
“Here it is, Matilda,” now to have their way
The Queen wears her dress cut down so low
Neighbors say, “That girl’s nothing but a ho.”
But when Matilda was just a very young child
None of them cared that she was running wild
What might have been the effect of kind words?
But nothing like that by Matilda was ever heard
Her red-haired mother lay drunk night after night
And her bleary-eyed father was at the bar to fight
Matilda, pretty and smart, might have done well
Neighbors and her kin said, “She’s a child of hell.”
Her role as Queen will Matilda ever abdicate?
Or for her can it be, even now, just far too late?
Categories:
holler, angstnight, night,
Form: Rhyme
Untitled (Holler)
2010
Holler without gasping for air
Continue until fainting becomes part of you
Scream reaching the point of redness
With blood spilling from your pores
Stand tall, not looking down, growing
With every nonsense thrown your way
Provide refuge, shade for those next to you
Bare fruits to revive the soul of those just like you, not forgetting the rest
Spread your arms, circling the world
Comforting, letting know “everything will be alright”
Holler without gasping for air
Let your personal explosion fill empty holes
The ignorant
Those who hate us because they don’t understand us
Lead your roots deep within without destroying yet educating
The ignorant
Those who hate us because they don’t understand us
Holler without gasping for air
Stand tall, bare fruits
Comforting, never the hatred but movement
Categories:
holler, lifehate,
Form: Free verse
Slipknots of braided wool
lacquer the trees with the darkness of Spanish Moss
down in Kentucky hollers,
where the rules are scraped with twigs in dirt roads
to be washed away by summer storms
and trampled on by outsider's feet.
Chow dogs sleep as guard lions
with manes grown thick with tick and snarl
Purple in tongue and panting breath
with a fight in them only the heat can quell.
It's but the spirit of missionary work
that breaks the silence of family circles-
Cousins gone first, second, and third
down the holler and up the hill...
Butterflies savor every fallen apple,
in a world where nature is common place,
while the slipknots from racial inequality
stain this simple beauty
with gnarled truth and fear.
Time ticks backwards in this holler:
a place with no address,
unpaved, unkempt,
and untouched by the kindness
of humanity in progress.
Categories:
holler, people, sad, social,
Form: Free verse