John Wayne walked
As Wisconsinites do
Every Winter
When frigid cold tumbles
Humbles
Two-legged gait
On
All kinds of ice.
So does walk
Timothy Oliphant
Come to think of it.
He walked on sand there,
In Hawai’i,
But not for very long.
Same thing.
It is the kind of sidling
Desert snakes do:
Half tentative
Full-blown cocky;
But without butts
Or lopsided heads.
I see a deer dancing
On the frozen lake
And say:
“There goeses
The Waynes and the Oliphantes.
Marion Robert Morrison
his voice couldn’t be confused with Roy Orbison
but he really gained his fame
when he became known as John Wayne
John Wayne was born in a tiny house in a teeny Iowa town.
We love claiming him, because Iowans do not usually leave Iowa.
Certainly do not become bigger-than-life cowboy movie stars!
But he did, and we adored him. I still do in many ways.
our hero who never served.
Like my Uncle Kevin
Born 1907...
But who might we liken
To this Superb Icon,
In his films large eyeballs rolls?
In minds ever striking
To Today's Actors liking:
Named Robert Morrison,
Its closest: Harrison
Or soldiers' Garrison
But he went for John Wayne!
Trying to get round same stain?
Well, he just couldn't wane;
Only Cancer's last pain...
The Gernini factor
One makes first rate actors
Jolie, Eastwood, John Wayne
The Sun might shine, later Rain...
Films above Two Hundred:
Cause to this Talent dread!
Scoring he was fine goals
With ripe horses, not foals:
Western movies and War
Actions supplying raw!
And Wayne was just cherished
Like he smoking relished
John Wayne would not entertain
self-doubt or indecision
jumped in again and again
with full blown tunnel vision
pure bravado does not stop
mortality's sure advance
nothing can give assurance
we will have that one last dance
not every situation
is cause to pose scream and shout
will be no acclimation
if we can't find our way out
lies turn into bolder lies
words sole purpose is deceit
no use trying to disguise
sometimes we'll take a backseat
unease growing faster now
leering faces seem stranger
no one going to ask how
words led to this much danger
not an outstanding question
of what might make it alright
flat out wrong situation
when lives are taken for spite
cannot simply turn and run
at this point of no return
too much cannot be undone
to dodge permanent downturn
this world's not all black and white
except in minds which are closed
we've all become wrapped too tight
in myths long ago composed
John Wayne would stick to his guns
in those technicolor dreams
but we're the actual ones
coming apart at the seams
Written April 14, 2017
It's easy to fall in love
Even easier to break apart
I've been trying for six long years
To mend this broken heart
You used to talk to me so sweet
My biggest fan in the bleacher seats
From the rose bush to the baseball bat
Why'd you have to go and be like that
Why don't you just be like John Wayne
Why'd you go and have to die
Why don't you just be like John Wayne
Even he cried sometimes
Life never looked so bleak
Than the day you left me
It's easy to forgive sometimes
But this ain't one of those times
Sticks and stones may break my bones
Glass houses are all I've known
From the salt shaker to the baseball bat
Why'd you have to go and be like that
Why don't you just be like John Wayne
Why'd you go and have to die
Why don't you just be like John Wayne
Even he cried sometimes
His last days
in his dreams
in Jamaica mon
The capital Kingston
He prayed to the heavens
Gods only laughed
in the Caribbean waves
as this small minded
prang called
the pond of frogs
glorious
Even though you did me wrong, I've written a few poems about you.
You came in my house and stole some pills, that was a bad thing to do.
You also borrowed some money but didn't repay what you owed.
Sadly, you can't celebrate this Christmas because you died half a year ago.
This will be the first Christmas since 1969 that you're not alive.
You died six months ago today, you weren't able to survive.
You had a heart murmur but half a year ago, your heart stopped beating.
When it came to death, it was something you had no chance of defeating.
[Dedicated to John W. Brown (1969-2019) who died on June 3, 2019.]
I've always said no to drugs but my friend didn't do the same.
When a person dies of an overdose, it's always a damn shame.
John learned the hard way that a man reaps what he sews.
Every time drugs were offered to him, I wish he had said no.
I'm not certain what he overdosed on, it may have been Meth.
When my friend of forty years overdosed, he drew his last breath.
I recently read that Meth damages the lungs, kidneys, liver, heart and brain.
John might have rejected Meth if that was something he could've ascertained.
Years ago, I tried to convince him to get some help but my words always fell on deaf ears.
He was forty-eight but if he had said no to drugs, he could've lived for many more years.
[Dedicated to John W. Brown (1970-2019) who died on June 3, 2019.]
Just one month ago, you were walking around.
But now you're dead and buried in the ground.
So much can change in just the blink of an eye.
You went too soon, forty-eight was too young to die.
Forty years ago in 1979, we became friends.
I wish that your life hadn't come to an end.
On the 3rd day of June, you took your final breath.
You overdosed on drugs and it caused your death.
Because you were a drug user, you didn't survive.
Drugs eventually kill, that's why you're no longer alive.
[Dedicated to John W. Brown (1970-2019) who died on June 3, 2019.]
My grandmother and his father were first cousins, and that made us related.
When he died on the 3rd of June, his death wasn't something that I anticipated.
When a person dies, it's something that people hate.
He has gone to Heaven at the young age of forty-eight.
His mother named him after John Wayne, the deceased movie star.
Now Heaven is the place where both my friend and John Wayne are.
It's always hard to lose a member of the Human Race.
John is dead but he is in a far better place.
[Dedicated to John W. Brown (1970-2019) who died on June 3, 2019.]
John Wayne
Gained his fame
For riding on a horse
Of course
Celebrity or a Famous Person Clerihew Poetry Contest
Sponsored by: Tania Kitchin
3/29/19
wind is coming in
sun is just showing
horses are watered
fire is glowing
movement is starting
the camp is awake
cookie is working
there's breakfast to make
no fancy croissants
or drinks laced with toffee
this is good solid food
and strong cowboy coffee
it gets it's job done
it ain't always so nice
later on in the day
it gets served by the slice
mud, java, joe
it's got lots of names
and at each cowboy camp
it still tastes the same
grounds at the bottom
thick as coal tar
without cowboy coffee
you will not go far
eggs, beans and bacon
and bread texas thick
to wipe up what's left
and get every lick
here out on the trail
you won't find any toffee
we eat solid grub
and we drink cowboy coffee
Elegy Poem
The day I had seen your first movie
I was always interjecting and happy
I would always pull out my toy guns and start to act like you
I remember watching every single one of your movies
That was until JUne 11, 1979 when you went by by
Now I can’t watch any new movies of yours
That is no bueno
Why did you have to die
We had some good times
Especially watching my favorite movie of yours Cowboys
Watchin’ John Wayne ag'in
The West alive right to defend
Riding tall in the saddle
Showing men his mettle
For those days the bad guys knew
He would give them what was due
For in the end you know what’s true
A man’s got to do what a man’s got to do.
© Paul Warren Poetry
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